The Great Dilemma of Being Only One in a Crowd of Many

I have serious hair envy with Savannah. I LOVE her beautiful hair!

The blog posts are coming less frequently these days. The inspiration is there ... but the motivation is not. But hopefully I'll get back on track this week and be able to post a few a week. Epic changes are on the way for our family, and it would be good to keep a record of my thoughts in case someday someone will be interested in them.

Today I saw Savannah inducted into the National Honor Society. I know it is an honor to be inducted. I really do. I just don't get super enthusiastic about it as a parent. And these induction ceremonies are a terrible drag to attend. Maybe I would feel differently if my kids were super excited about them, but they don't even want to be there. I think we would all be happy if they just mailed us a nice certificate to frame. But I realize that not all parents are this way, and many love to see these big events, so I always make sure to suck it up, put on a smiley face, and show up to support my kids when the opportunity arises.

Today I got the chance to support Savannah. As far as induction ceremonies go, it was straight forward, exactly what you would expect ... talking, slideshow, talking, musical numbers, talking. Then it came time for the actual induction. There were about 75 kids from WHS who were being inducted today, and considering how many there were, the process took relatively little time. But as the group progressed through the line I got more and more worried. What would happen was that the student would hand a card to the announcer, and after their name was called they had to go and light a little candle before heading to the main part of the stage to prepare for reciting the National Honor Society pledge. Well, as each person's name was called, a group of parents/friends would yell out support for them. We've all been the ceremonies like this or graduations, so you know what I'm talking about. A name is called and ...

The crowd erupts ... well, at least some of them.

Here was my problem:

I'm not a crowd screamer. Well, let me clarify ... I will scream in a crowd ... IF I am surrounded by other people who are screaming. If not, I'm a quiet clapper. Super quiet. You could probably say that I don't clap; I just make the motions, warming the air around me infinitesimally. Polite to the extreme. Like so:

Normally this is not a big deal because I travel with my own private megaphone ... Herman. He can yell like no one else. I can spend a good portion of a football game hiding my head in my hoodie to avoid the looks the come our way when Herman is cheering for our team (but we do love him). At these ceremonies I depend on Herman to be our one man cheering squad, and he performs admirably. But today Herman was in Salem all day for a branch conference, and he was not going to be home in time to attend the ceremony, so I was going solo today. It was up to me to carry the cheering section. Yikes!

Well, as Savannah's row came to the stage each student's name was called, and it almost seemed as if the cheers were getting louder with each name. I was starting to sweat. Luckily, I knew that Savannah puts little stock in how big of a cheer she receives from a group. Still, I didn't want for there to be dead silence when her name was called. I prepared myself. I sucked in my gut. I puffed out my chest. I took a big breath. I visualized what a hearty David Tennant clap might look like ...

Savannah's name was called, and ...

A HUGE CHEER ERUPTED FROM THE AUDIENCE!!!!!

What the heck? Where did that come from? Who were these Savannah fans? 

It was awesome! I have no idea who cheered. Savannah had no idea who cheered. But it was pretty neat, nonetheless. Even though Savannah wasn't interested in getting a giant cheer, I know that it made her smile to think that someone out there was willing to put out some air power on her behalf.  I'm going to have to work on my crowd skills if I want to be prepared for the legion of Blau children (and grandchildren someday) who will be crossing stages across the country in recognition ceremonies. Hopefully Herman will always be there, but realistically I know that he won't always be able to be in town for all of those. For today, however, I am super grateful for a nameless, faceless group of people who picked up the slack and let out a roar for my Savannah. It made me happy to hear you!