Chaelisa: A Playlist

Ending Page Part III

"Dum, dum, dum, di, da, da..."

Rosé looks at her daughter whose holding her hand while they make their way to the backstage. "I see someone's excited to play the piano..." She teases.

"More like nervous." Her daughter clarifies.

"Come on, there's no need to be that nervous, don't think of it as a big deal."

"Mommy it's my first recital, of course I'm going to make it a big deal." Laura lets go of her hand and went ahead of her.

"Laura, wait."

As soon as Rosé joins her daughter at the backstage, she saw how chaotic it was. There was a side of it filled with children having their dresses checked and a little make-up applied, one corner was vocalizing, another children practicing their instruments and there was just this corner where children were endlessly and annoyingly whining- nearing on the verge of throwing a tantrum while their parents wipe of beads of sweat, trying to calm their offspring down. Amidst the chaos, she looks at her little one who looked like she just had realized something.

"I'm going to suck later."

"That's not true."

"Mom, seriously, take a look around." Her daughter gestures. "I'm going to fail."

"Hey look at me." She kneels down to meet her daughter eye-to-eye. "You're only going to fail if you allow it to happen okay?" She says. "I'm sorry for telling you that you shouldn't consider this as a big deal, because you're right. It is a big deal but, it doesn't mean you can't have fun."

"How can I have fun when I'm starting to worry too much?"

"Can you tell me while you like music?"

Laura nods her head. "I like that I can play my favorite songs. I like that I can play your favorite songs on Sunday while you paint. Music makes me more connected with you."

"Then focus on that reason..." Rosé chokes up the tears with what her daughter just said. "Sometimes, when we let our emotions take over for good reasons, the results can be pretty amazing."

"Were you also nervous before you perform?"

"I was always nervous honey. Seconds before coming up the stage there's a million reasons running in my head of the possible scenarios that I will fail."

"How do you overcome it?"

"I focus on the reason of how fortunate I am to get to do what I want to do in my life and back then, it was music." She smiles. "So, you just enjoy the things you get to do while you can Laura, you can worry later. Right now, I just want you to do what makes you happy." Cupping her daughter's cheek, she asks- "Music makes you happy right?"

"It does."

"Then there's no reason for you not to have fun later."

"Laura!" A girl appears wearing a bright yellow dress and her brown locks were beautifully wrapped with a yellow-mustard tone bow. "You're finally here!"

Rosé instantly observed how her daughter's stiffness disappear with the sight of the girl. "Hi Reese!" Laura brightly greets. "Mom this is Reese, one of my friends in summer class. She plays the violin."

Reese turns to her and politely acknowledges her. "Hello Reese, it's nice to finally meet one of my daughter's friends."

"I'm glad to meet you to Ms. Park."

"Are you alone? Where's your mother?"

"My mom is still on her way from a business trip. So, my neighbor dropped me off."