Now It Is Up to Her
Ping, Cici and I drove to the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts this afternoon so Cici could get her first look at it. We arrived at a good time because Cici got to watch a girl auditioning with her flute. When the girl finished we visited with her for a few minutes. She is in the 8th grade and was auditioning for the freshman class. The man who handled her audition was very nice, she told Cici, so she was able to relax and just play.
Then we walked the halls of the school and Cici looked at all the bulletin boards and the artwork that students had done that was displayed on the walls. On one bulletin board there was a display with things about the summer trip that the seniors took to Shenzhen, China. There were even articles from a Chinese newspaper as part of the display, apparently about the visit from the students from America. Cici was impressed that the students would take a trip to China.
I thought the school had a good feel to it, and from Cici's body language, I thought she felt the same way. She was very interested in everything. When we walked out of the school, Cici confirmed that she really liked it and would like to go to school there. Well Sweetie, I told her, it is all up to you now. Do you have your music selected for the audition? Yes Papa. Have you been practicing it? Yes Papa. But I get very nervous when I have to play for an audition, so I never play as well as when I am just practicing. Have you practiced all the scales that they will test you on? No, I forgot about that, but I will practice them.
So it was both a good trip and possibly a bad trip. The bad part is that now I know that Cici will be disappointed if she doesn't audition well and isn't accepted into the school. It is no longer just a hypothetical idea; she has something to lose now. Ping was funny, walking down the street by the school, looking at some of the new construction in the area. Then she memorized the way home.
I have seen Cici rise to the occasion over and over again for exams. Can she do it for the audition? I don't know, and I can't help her with this effort. All I can do is watch and wait to see how my chicken baby does.
She's gonna knock them out! If she wants to of course!
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I hope so, Smitty.
While everything rides on the audition, I am going to supplement her application with her grade report for the first semester of her sophomore year. If it is otherwise a close call, maybe that will help swing the balance.
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What if she also auditions with the gu zheng, in addition to the flute? I can't imagine that they get much of that.
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Good idea, Smitty. We tried to play that card, though, and it didn't work. They don't have anyone who could judge her abilities in an audition, and no one to teach her and test her for classes.
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