This Happened…

WillConducting

This sketch of last night’s momentous occasion does not capture all that is swirling around in my heart. It does not convey our son’s height correctly. Perhaps I’ll always view him as a boy, instead of the man he is becoming. The sketch does not depict the entire concert choir at Glenn High School where William has been singing and learning music for four years. It doesn’t capture his excitement and nerves as he stood to conduct not only this big choir but also the man at the piano…the composer himself of the piece William had chosen for the choir to sing. Nor does this sketch deliver the emotional punch of a mother watching her son step into some pretty big shoes, holding in her heart all the sizes of shoes he has worn the past 17 years.

We are firmly in that period of time I’ll call the “graduation blur”. From the beginning of April through graduation in early June, it all seems surreal. All the “last time I’ll do this or that”, all the award banquets and ceremonies, all the concerts and senior slide shows and dinners, the graduation picnic and ceremony. Perhaps when I look back on it all, this dashed off sketch will communicate more to me in bringing back memories than it does in any details of the drawing.

The wonderful thing is that this is not the end of our son’s music career. Heading to ECU in the fall to major in Music composition and theory will afford us many occasions to hear him sing in choirs and perhaps even conduct again. I’m really looking forward to a day when I can sit and hear a choir sing one of his choral compositions. He has a gift. And I, as his mother, hardly have words these days.

*****

Our son’s middle name is not spelled with an “e” on the end. Cochran is a family name and I had to look up on his birth certificate to confirm that I had indeed spelled it wrong on the sketch page.

He turns 18 on May 20th. Add THAT to the “graduation blur”. <sniff>

4 thoughts on “This Happened…

  1. Margaret Harrison says:

    Oh happy day!! So thrilling and so many thrills to come. Not the end, a graduation to the next level of joy and happiness for all of you! I know you are so proud of William. I got chill bumps reading this. <3

  2. Sarah Prchard says:

    Just lovely! As a mother also of a 26 and24 year old , both gifted…. What can I say! How proud you must feel and whenever you look at your sketch you will feel the love and pride!
    Regards
    Sarah Orchard

  3. Ed pilkington says:

    I am cryinng tears of Artful Heart JOY. Your family is a double blessed family and I am so proud to be a little part of it. Aslan is on the move!

  4. Timaree says:

    That’s wonderful! And I bet he did great too. Your drawing will bring back the memory even if it has all the blemishes you think it has : ). It’s so fun to see the kids spread their wings while it also causes that bit of pain in our hearts that they are really growing up and not needing us so much.

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