My Ashley

Yesterday I went to my youngest daughter Ashley's last orchestra concert for the year. She is first chair viola in the 7th grade. Her school is Forest Hills Central Middle, which is a very good school here in the Grand Rapids area. The concert was much like any other. Dorothy never goes to these because she has to start work at at 11 p.m. every night, and so is long in bed by the time these shows get out. But this time I went with all the kids, and my sister in law brought her youngest.

The show was about what you'd expect from a bunch of middle schoolers, but after the 7th grade played, it was time to hand out the award for outstanding achievement. In a big orchestra, and Ashley's school is fairly large, those awards always seem to go to the first chair violinist, which is exactly what happened in the 8th grade. But when the director started speaking about the qualities of the 7th grade winner, I began to think my girl might win. And she DID!

I was proud of her, I started to well up. I could tell she had no idea she was going to win--she's like that though. I asked her afterwards and she didn't even know what was said--she was just sitting there wondering who got it when her name was called.

Ashley favors my side of the family in looks and, ahem, brains, but I have almost no musical aptitude, and Dorothy's side does, so she must have gotten her talent from them. My oldest girl plays the bass (cute aside--when she started, she was the only girl playing bass. She's now in 9th grade, but when the 8th graders played, ALL three of the bassists are girls--Haley was a trailblazer!) and she's capable, but orchestra music isn't her thing--she just bought herself an acoustic guitar. But Ashley loves the music, learns how to play it very quickly, and doesn't need to be told to practice--she loves to practice.

This past week she told me she now thinks she'd like to study music in college--now that she's in her teens, these desires really begin to mean something. I was that age when I knew I'd study physics.

That's enough bragging for now--I'm so proud of her I could just burst!