Long Road to the National Anthem

HistoryBoy loves music. It helps calms him, soothe him, keep him on task when he needs it. He loves to sing, to perform for me and his Mimi, but we are his comfort zone. Ask him and sometimes he will say he wants to be the next Justin Bieber. I am not going to discourage from something he truly loves (but he also loves legos and history and he IS 10 so...), but I have tried to make him see he has to deal with people in a job like that. As we all know, people skills are not our Aspie best traits.

This school year, HistoryBoy participated in his school's 4th grade choir. (I will have another blog about the stresses and such of this but that is for another day) He learned to sing beautifully, Somewhere Over the Rainbow in his 10 yr old soprano voice. Also, several others I recognized from when I was in music class way back when, and of course The National Anthem. He would come home singing every day he had music class or choir.

Now the amazing part is that his 4th grade choir was invited to sing at the National Anthem at the local minor league baseball game. He did not where headphones to cover his ears from the noise and he stayed to watch the fireworks. This could/would NEVER have happened 5 years ago, maybe even 2 - 3 years ago. He has come so far in that amount of time. He has worked so hard to be able to overcome his issues with loud places and lots of people. He still isn't always comfortable in crowds or with noise that may always be a problem.

What it comes down to is he CHOSE to perform at the game because he loves the National Anthem so much and didn't allow himself to be overwhelmed by the noise of the crowd or the applause. I left at the beginning of the 3rd inning. HistoryBoy stayed with Angus because I was too tired to stay for me but he wanted to stay. He WANTED to see the fireworks display after the game, and while I wasn't there to see if he covered his ears from the noise the fact that he wanted to be there at all says so much.

I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment or email me at teenahope@gmail.com