Chica’s Violin Progress!

Okay, peeps.

It took me a solid week, post-vacay to catch up and deal with allllllll of life’s busyness. But, as of end-of-day Tuesday, I had my act (and my house/laundry basket) together, again.

Amen, HALLELUIAH.

Even so…it’s taken me a few days beyond that to have the capacity for a few odds and ends catch-up posts. Life is just so abundant that by the time the kiddos are in bed and Coda puppy is settled, I’m abundantly tired and too wiped to share and post. But I’m finally going to try to knock a few updates, so, heeeere we go!

First, I’ll apologize in advance that these next few posts might feel Chica-centric. It just so happens that she’s had a few things going on relevant enough to share, so we’ll just roll with it and even it all out with my other beloved crazy kiddos, soon!

Okay. Let’s talk violin!

As a recap…Chica first began violin as a 5th grader, through a program designed to generate strings interest for incoming sixth graders. 

At the time, it was the first official instrument for any of our kiddos (beyond dabbling at some unofficial piano), and really fun to witness (especially since I always kind of wanted to learn the violin, myself!).

Chica continued with violin in 6th grade, which was a lovely and really natural progression, given her 5th grade familiarity, and then…

At the end of 6th grade, she auditioned and made it into the Honors Symphony class for this year, which is the highest level of orchestral performance within their middle school. :)

Last night, we watched her first, official concert at that level, and it was wild to see how far she’s come in just a few, short years!

Here’s my girl, dressed and ready for the “Spooktacular” concert:

If you think she looks adorable in her spiderweb poncho, she totally does! But the true beauty of that pic lies within, as my girl waged a the internal, self-consciousness battle to get out the door wearing it.

You see, the orchestra director accidentally did the worst thing possible (for multiple years running) to a group of self-conscious middle schoolers and told them they could wear their standard uniform OR a costume. Making it either/or is just the worst. Talk about the very foundation for paralysis by analysis!

For reference, heeeeere’s the beautiful, official uniform. Black and velvet and a lovely jeweled pin at the waist:



But the angst. Oooooooh, the angst, when there’s the possibility of wearing a costume. What will everyone else do???? Will she be the only one dressed up???? The only one in the uniform??? Will the costume selected be too obnoxious??? Will she blend in??? Draw attention???

I mean…the pain of this kind of decision. It’s real.

Chica had a ton o’ fun rifling through our old costume bucket in preparation, and I wept giant crocodile tears (I kid) when she fit in to allllllll of my old onesies:

STOP. GROWING.



I mean, the joy these costumes brought was great. But the self-consciousness was greater. :(







I mean, you can feeeeel the indecisiveness through this pic:



I’ll skip over the specifics of Chica’s decision-making, and the sadness it caused. Mostly because my amazing eldest wishes she could sometimes make fast and easy decisions without excessively weighing the pros and cons, but…if she operated any differently, she wouldn’t be the child I love (SO MUCH).

In the end, neither the uniform nor any of the old costumes won out, but, rather, a late-breaking entry in the form of this poncho. A fellow Mama freind, who I adore, was also battling the last minute decision of her so our girls sort of buddied up with complementary styles. :)

Here theg are: ghost and spider. :)



With these kinda of episodes, it’s impossible to see the forest through the trees. Dealing with a difficult teenage decision can make a parent want to scream: Be brave! Don’t worry about what other’s think! You’ve got this! None of this will matter, years from now!

But, of course, if you put yourself back in the mindset of a vacillating middle grade kiddo, it’s easy to remember those amorphous years when homogenized life feels the safest.

My girl has made such strides in confidence over the past year or two, continuously showing me how gracefully she’s growing further and further into the human that she is. But it’s still helpful to remember that’s she’s got a lot of that growing still to do. And sometimes, it’s going to come with a little pain, to reach a lotta gain.

Speaking of gain…I’m so stinking proud of my girl for the actual violin playing, beyond the what-to-wear situation. 

Late last school year, it was quite a stretch for Chica to master the necessary audition music and feel comfortable putting herself on the line for Honors Orchestra.

And as recently as the beginning of this school year, she was still really uncertain about her skill set, and whether or not she’d be able to keep up.

But with the assistance of a really wonderful private violin tutor, and enough TLC to remind my girl of why she’s in orchestra to begin with, she’s made incredible strides in both skill and confidence.

In fact, one of the best recent practice sessions involved by girl trying to site read some music from Twilight so she could play a portion of the soundtrack. :) Watching her stand there, all chill, just trying out different notes while she was reading off her phone…ugh. It made my heart so happy.



It takes so much dedication and persistence to learn an instrument and keep up with the required practice minutes, not to mention the chair tests for concert placement (that Chica has really slayed, lately). 

But it takes something greater not to let the weight of all the responsibility take away the joy of the music, and I’m so grateful she’s been able to restore and maintain a positive attitude when she’s faced her own bouts of self-doubt.

And, of course, she’s always got an amazing cheering section. ;)

I’m grateful for this moment of progress and growth, and grateful for Chica’s love of music and learning.

Soooooo many more catch-up posts to get to, but for now…happy Almost Friday, peeps!

Over and out.