Tag Archives: #comedy #parenting #family

When I was in the 4th grade, I thought I could sing. I couldn’t. I signed up to sing an A-cappella solo in the talent show. My dad said it was a horrible idea. I ignored him. I marched myself onto the stage, stood in front of the entire school (and an extremely large number of parents), and I belted out a painfully off-key rendition of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. It was awful. It was excruciatingly awful. I realized somewhere around the first “doo-dah” that half of the crowd was laughing; the other half was staring at me in abject horror. Think Alfalfa, if you are old enough to understand that reference. I was sweaty, and my hands started to shake, but I stuck it out until the voice-cracking break-screeching end. For the rest of the day, I endured sad pats on the back from my teachers, and extremely exaggerated reenactments from my peers. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. When I told my parents that I was never going back to school, they didn’t bat an eye. I was going, and I was going to get over it. My parents had no problem letting me experience failure.