Delighted!

Maia is delighted!

She had been struggling with the decision of whether to attempt a transfer at her school from the dance department to the theatre department. She entertained the idea in October, made preliminary inquiries, and ultimately decided to continue in dance, mostly because of all of the time she had invested in dance training thus far.

But the theatre continued calling to her. Our always prayer is that our children would be able to identify their God-given gifts early and find their passions. Maia's good problem is that she is very gifted in several areas. When she auditioned for the Baltimore School for the Arts before her Freshman year, she was accepted into both the dance and theatre departments and had to choose which one to pursue. As her goal at the time was musical theatre, the choice was very difficult for her, and she waffled back and forth before finally selecting dance.

She has learned so much in the dance department these past several years (in dance classes four hours every school day), but has always kept one eye on the theatre. She originally intended to pursue theatre in her free time and in the summers. However, majoring in dance is so all-consuming, the rehearsals and performances took up nearly all of her free time during the school year. Then, Maia being who Maia is, she auditioned for and spent most of her summers in intensive dance programs to hone her dance skills.

But, she always kept one eye on the theatre.

Finally, in January, she attended a performance of the Junior Acting Ensemble, and knew, just knew, she was in the wrong department. I was sitting next to her at that performance, and I knew, just knew, she belonged on that stage. However, at this point in her educational pursuit, midway through her Junior year, transferring arts departments is not usually an option. The difficulty is that she takes advanced academic classes, which at a small school such as hers, are very tightly scheduled with usually only one section. So, although she might have transferred into the theatre department as a freshman or sophomore level acting student, her Junior level academic classes conflicted directly with the lower level acting classes. Therefore, the only transfer possibility would be into the Junior Acting Ensemble, a tricky proposition as these talented students have studied acting together for the past two and a half years (and were excellent in their January performance!). Nevertheless, she made the necessary inquiries, requested and received the opportunity to audition, and nervously began preparing a monologue (or three!).

Her original audition date was thwarted by snow, leading to an agonizing wait for another audition date, which then fell during the rescheduled incoming Freshman auditions for the school, so she found herself auditioning with a pool of eighth graders and hoping the acting faculty remembered she was seeking a spot in the Junior ensemble. They did, the audition went well, and after another agonizing two-day call-back wait, she finally got the word she'd been hoping and praying for...she is accepted into the Junior acting ensemble!

She is so delighted and feels like a new chapter of her life is beginning. There are no words to express her joyful anticipation as she waits for her acting classes to begin this upcoming week. And we are all delighted with her. What an answer to prayer! While Maia is a very talented dancer, we feel she is now on a path to operating in her primary area of giftedness. We are so grateful to just have an arts high school here in Baltimore, but even more, to have one in which the faculty is willing to look at each student individually, and help each one craft their own artistic path with excellent training and immeasurable encouragement.

Maia says she's keeping that audition name tag forever!

Go, Maia, go! Run on, run on...well, for now, till the crutches are gone...hop on, hop on!!

Much love. Take care!