too much

What is too much? When is it too hard? What is overwhelming? I don't know. I would think that 5 hours of theater practice would be a bit excessive for an 8 year-old. But even after 1 hour at home, 1/2 hour of vocal music and 3 1/2 hours at the theater, Punk does not want to leave. He runs lines in his head, sings music all the way home. He cannot get enough.

And Kooka with her dance . . . .she practices for 20 minutes every day on her own. And then, on Mondays we are the first at the studio. She practices until the first class starts. Then she takes the second class. After the third class I am wiped out. It is 8:00 and neither of us has eaten dinner. But she is not finished. "Mom," she says, "I really want to get that one jete' down, and that pirouette and I need to fix my splits." I really want to leave, but she really wants to stay. So we do. An hour later she is still going - she actually says, "I don't want to go yet. I am not as good as you." I finally manage to drive home the point that I do have a few years and a tiny bit of experience on her, and then she allows me to drag her out of the place.

She is so driven, so eager to catch up to everybody. Even in this picture I took at play practice. She is the youngest kid in the cast - the little sister, and there she is next to Lillian - looking at everybody else, standing on tiptoe, trying to be more. "Good enough" is never good enough for her.

I don't know what is too much for them - too hard - too overwhelming. They have these incredible personalities - souls that seem energized by the constant demands of honing their crafts. Maybe it will never be too much for them. Maybe it is just too much for me.