Nicolette has every reason not to be a nice person. She's beautiful. She's smart. She's a terrific dancer and has a hundred trophies to prove it. So, why on earth is she smiling like a banshee, huddled over her knees, pencils in hand, pounding out a rhythm for her classmates?
Because, despite all those reasons to the contrary, Nicolette is a sparkly, kind goofball with a song in her heart.
We were between interviews, having just started the arduous task of choosing next year's Yearbook staff, and the kids were a bit wound up. Sure, they were behaving whenever the applicants showed up, putting on their professional airs and asking thoughtful questions. But, in those in-between times, with no outsiders within earshot, they were just a bunch of ding-a-ling kids, their excited voices piling atop each other like snow balls in a backyard fort.
That's when Nicolette decided it was time for a song. She shushed and corralled her classmates, who were sitting in a sloppy circle, and began tapping out the rhythm, pointing whenever it was their turn to holler "Hey!" and "Ho!"
I had no idea what the song was but, by the time the chorus came around, most were singing it, their young voices surprisingly together, their timbre--all joy. Some swayed, some smiled silently, a bit in awe of the impromptu choir, and every last one of them was grinning.
(Hey!)
1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3
I belong with you, you belong with me,
you're my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweet
(Ho!)
Did I tell you that I really love these kids? For all kinds of reasons, this group has warmed my heart. They are generous, funny, familial. They look out for each other (and for me), cajoling when necessary and stepping up, even when the assignment kind of sucks.
I feel such affection towards them, knowing they will do their darnedest to do right by me. And, in return, I by them. And, always, they do it with a joy-tinged spirit and a song in their hearts.
THE SONG THEY SANG THAT MORNING:
Ho Hey
By the Lumineers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvCBSSwgtg4
I would have to say, I don't think I would ever expect something like that from yearbookers!
ReplyDeleteScreaming outside at their top of their lungs on a Saturday while at school working on a deadline, crazy travels to exotic places like Scottsbluff, sneaking over to a beet factory, coming up with the information and stories to place into a time capsule to explain the days of our youth, wishing your Yearbook Teacher wasn't on maternity leave, wondering how the heck all those pictures and names end up on those pages...... ahhh to be in Yearbook again!
Thanks for the reminders!
Ah, Nat! We had ourselves some fun, didn't we? And Scottsbluff was so exotic that it's the only time I've gotten to take kids there! Lucky us!
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