FOR WELL OVER a year now, our family’s little sister, aka the Rock, has been telling just about everyone she meets all about her professional ambitions. You’ll never guess.
Princess? Nope. (She’s already got that pretty well covered.)
Doctor? Only when we’re at the pediatrician’s office, and she’s intrigued by the reflex hammer.
Mommy? Well, yes, but she’s quite clear that you can do that and lots of other things at the very same time. (The harsh reality of multi-tasking is well-established in our home.)
No, my little pistol has clearly defined ambitions, and like her brother’s, they’re musical.
The River is crystal clear on his life plans: rock star all the way. But the Rock, in typically sui generis fashion, has embraced his goal and made it her own. She plans to be a singer, and a songwriter. Fair enough. But with her usual focus, she’s made songs the centerpiece of her…and our…lives.
She sings while we brush her teeth (challenging, that one.) She sings herself to sleep (counting sheep, of course, to a tune of her own devising.) She sings during the ride to school every morning while her brother DJ’s on my iPod and yells at her to be quiet, because he can’t hear the Guns n Roses.
Her tunes aren’t exactly tuneful, and her lyrics can be repetitive, but she’s taking on musicality with the same bemused determination she’s shown in learning, well, everything, since birth. Now that her brother (remember him? the one who wants to be a rock star?) is well into learning guitar, I assumed she’d ask for music lessons, too. My mother even gave her a mandolin, so she’d have her very own small-scale instrument to strum.
But according to her, voice is all the instrument she wants, at least for the moment. But what she does need? Someone to take dictation. Someone who (not being 5) can write down the lyrics. You may be able to guess which resident multi-tasker has been pressed into service on that score.
Will either of my kids’ musical dreams amount to anything?I have no idea. It doesn’t much matter: I love how much love they’re putting into these visions of their own futures. And, after all, anything can happen: check out the video above my friend Rocky’s ultra-talented 18 year old daughter, Nikki Lang–singer/songwriter, currently on the road on her first tour.
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When my now grown daughter was asked at a dinner party ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ the feisty six year old replied ‘I can’t decide, either a bartender or a belly dancer.” Priceless..