The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXI

Ngolela Kamanampata
Aaron Kesler and Alison Spade, Teachers
Boston Renaissance Charter Public School, Hyde Park, MA
It’s funny how different the same event can seem if we’re in a different
place. Like, for example, no matter how many times you take a practice test,
you always get a few wrong on the real test. Or, no matter how many times
you practiced the speech to convince your parents to let you sleep over at a
friend’s house, when you’re actually in front of them, it comes out sounding
awkward and sloppy. However, even though we may not have believed we did
well, it took something to give us enough strength to take that practice test
or speak up to our parents in the first place.
Maybe it was bravery or perseverance.
Maybe even courage.
Well, I have one of those stories. We’ll decide afterwards whether or not it
truly was an act of courage.
A few months ago, after a few weeks of begging, my parents finally signed me
up for the winter production of Elf: The Musical. I was so excited, and with
auditions only a few days away, I decided to jump right into practicing.
After listening to and memorizing the auditioning tracks, I spent almost an
hour singing along and even trying to sing the songs on my own from memory.
In my ears, it sounded great! Not perfect, but great. And it was even better
when I got to display it to the small audience of my mom and my brother.
When I entered that audition room a few days later, I suddenly realized I was
doomed as soon as they asked me to sing. You see, I was never really a singer.
I have always been more of a dancer and actress. So when I had to sing in
front of professionals? My legs and arms went cold. My heart was pumping
so loud that I was surprised they couldn’t hear it. It suddenly made sense why
it felt like the walls were closing in on me. At that moment, I wished I was
invisible. Instead, I was transparent. You could see right through whatever
“calm” act that might have been there.
And as it turned out, I got a role. Not a big singing role, but a role where I
could do more acting and dancing. Something that I was more comfortable
at doing and which enabled me to be me. How? Because I tried. I tried my
hardest. I aimed for the sky even if it felt like I was buried deep into the
ground. I was able to do it even with the huge weights of discouragement
and regret weighing me down.
After my experience, I would like to add to that definition. Courage is not
just showing bravery. Courage is being brave for a reason. A reason that
deep down, buried under all that negativity and worry, you know is right.
Because before you even show courage, you have to know what you are
doing it for. Before I go, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite sayings that I
think sums this up perfectly:
“If you aim for nothing, you hit nothing.”
“I aimed for the sky
even if it felt like
I was buried deep
into the ground.”
However, you want the miraculous part of this close-to-disaster experience?
I sang. I actually sang!
I sang even though I thought it was horrible and off key and pitchy. I sang
even though I thought it was garbage and that my parents wasted their money
and I should have been anywhere else. I sang even though I thought my life
would basically be over.
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
Volume XXXI
18 19