lessons in teamwork and moments in the real world

i spent the morning with my jump rope team at our school's business partner's headquarters. we didn't really know why we'd been invited to perform, but our business partner has done so much for our school that we were happy to go jump for them. with the beginning of the school year craziness the head coach and i hadn't actually thought through much of the plan. we had our cds ready to go, and expected to show up to a simple boom box. we clearly had no idea what sort of place we were performing.

we pulled into their beautiful building and even then we didn't realize we were out of our element. as we walked in and were handed name tags from the security guard and listened to the kids gasp at the "green house" in the lobby, it started to sink in.

they led us into a green room where breakfast was waiting and then showed us the hallway to the stage. i think we all caught our breath for a moment. the stage was small and narrow- but built from beautiful wood with two large screens hanging down. the auditorium chairs were large and comfortable- and i was shown up to the sound box where they immediately took our cds- turned them into mp3s, and computerized our whole program. then they asked me about what sort of lighting we wanted and i just about choked. lighting? seriously? um- it would be nice if we could see... luckily someone stepped in who had actual experience with lighting these

as we were setting up they shared that they'd asked us here as a way to kick off their seminar on teamwork. our kids were asked to perform in front of 150 professional adults as a symbol of teamwork, determination, competition, and perseverance.

not only was this a great moment for our children to realize that even adults have "guidance lessons", but also for them to realize that what makes them so special is not their talent but their hard work and determination. and of course- it was a great opportunity for them to get treated like rock stars. (and to show them what life in the real world could be like- it's not out of the question for them to work in beautiful offices and get treated to fancy lunches.)