Worth It?

Today will be another long day, what with having to drive 15 young people to Greenville to participate in the national competition for our Association of Christian Schools. These are the students from our school who placed first in the state in their various categories. One girl placed first in printmaking, three students got first in academic testing (English, chemistry, spelling, and home economics - we also had the first in Spanish, but that's not in the national competition), a young man is first in extemporaneous speaking, and eight students are in the choric speaking group. They perform at 8:00 today - and somehow I've got to get them there, situated, the bus parked across a busy street, and back to see them perform. Will be interesting.

I was beginning to wonder if all this is worth the trouble - because it IS a great deal of trouble. Then I thought of one young girl - quiet, in the background, unassuming personality throughout high school. Last year she took speech and loved the choric speaking piece we did. This past fall she tried out for the play, and it worked out that I was able to give her a nice part - not a lead, but a part with about 20 lines, so it was worthwhile and she was on stage in every act. Then she volunteered to be in a small speech group for the Christmas program, and now volunteered for this year's group of juniors who are doing this competition strictly as an extracurricular activity. (They placed above the group of sophomore speech students who also did a choric speaking piece.)

And, as this girl participates in more and more speech activities, I am seeing more and more poise develop in her. Part of it is general maturity, but part of it is learning to get up in front of a group and perform. She's really gaining confidence. Thinking about her, and others like her, makes all the work, time, and involvement worthwhile.