Oh, if life were made of moments.......

I think secretly every parent wishes their child would follow in their footsteps, whether it be the proverbial storefront sign that adds, "and son" when the child comes of age to enter the business or the daughter who shares the same passion for a hobby her mother loves.
I have shared before in this blog that I have a passion for the theater. I was "bitten by the bug", as they say, early in life. I did my first professional show at age 10 and diligently searched "The Green Section" every Saturday - who remembers that? - for audition notices. I still wait for audition notices, but now "The Green Section" has been replaced by an email distribution list and checking theater websites. I act as often as I can, and I usually end up doing at least one show a year.
I also have another role, MOM. In 1992 I was blessed with a little girl. I taught her to bow before she could walk, and she was doing impressions at the age of two. She was a baby lamb in Theatre IV's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" when she was 5 and played her first lead, "Annie", when she was in 5th grade. She will turn 18 in less than a year, and last night I had the opportunity to audition with her as a peer. Now, this is the part when it will seem that I am biased or just a proud parent, but ask anyone who knows me, I do not hand out praise like lollipops at the bank. If I say something, I mean it, even with my own children. She and I auditioned for a show called "Over the River and Through the Woods" at HTC. I watched her walk up to read, and at first I was following along in the script, and then I just decided to watch. She was so natural, so polished as if she had been rehearsing the part for a week. She was doing what we call in the acting world a "cold reading." A "cold reading" is when you are handed the script, asked to turn to a page and just read the part without ever having seen it before. Most actors will tell you they do not like cold readings. I LOVE them!! So does my daughter, apparently, and for good reason. She rocked at it! I was in awe of her talent, and yes, I was extremely proud. But I also realized at that "moment" that she's not my little girl anymore. She's grown into a poised, confident woman. She wants to act, that's all she wants to do. It's all she's ever wanted to do, and, in that way she is following in my footsteps. I have confidence, however, that she will go further than my footsteps lead and take the acting world by storm.
In Stephen Sondheim's musical, "Into the Woods", there is a song and one of the lyrics is:
"Oh, if life were made of moments, even now and then a bad one, but if life were only moments, then you'd never know you had one."
I am so thankful that I was able to have that "moment" with my daughter and that I got a glimpse into one of many "moments" she'll have in her career.