Today was Shannon's fifth grade graduation.  In contrast to when I went to elementary school she heads off to middle school for sixth grade.  Her school holds a pretty low key graduation celebration that is basically the fifth grade musical show.  Each grade in her school does their own show with a different theme.  The fifth grade theme was fifty years of broadway so they preformed a collection of songs that have been on broadway over time.

Each of the songs, with the exception of "For Good" from the musical "Wicked" was done in choral format.  However, in the first half of "For Good" one student had the opportunity to sing a solo.  There was a competition and six kids were selected as finalists but, in the end, Shannon was selected as the soloist.

Shannon has never sung publically before.  She just sings around the house and goofs off.  Lisa has always said she has good tone and pitch but I just always assumed that was parental bias.  I'm sure it is somewhat but there also has to be some truth to it considering she was selected as the soloist.

She has a pretty soft soprano voice so she doesn't really belt anything out but I still think she did a beautiful job of singing today at her graduation.  More amazingly to me was that she didn't seem to be nervous at all - she just stepped up and sang it like she's been singing in front of crowds forever.  It was really cool.  I cried and so did Lisa.

I actually knew Shannon would be singing today.  She told me a couple weeks ago that she had gotten the solo but she wanted to surprise Lisa.  There were a few times where I figured Shannon was going to ruin the surprise, she certainly dropped enough hints, but fortunately Lisa wasn't picking up on them.  So, today, when she started to sing, Lisa fell apart.  She was quiet about it but she started crying and didn't really hear much of the song.

Fortunately, I filmed it with my camera!  I know, moments like this deserve a better effort at preservation.  It's the best I could do.  Anyway, I'm glad I was able to film it and I'm super proud of her for doing such a good job.  

This was actually the first time I'd heard her sing it and I'm not ashamed that I cried with joy and pride.  After the ceremony a few different people came up to her and gushed over what a great job she did and one lady, who is a choir leader for her church, raved about how clearly she sang.  It was pretty damn cool.