I just received a phone call from a dear friend of mine. She and I are both lucky enough to have been selected out of a large list of applicants to sing in the school talent show next Friday, and we both were incredibly excited...
Now she's thinking about backing out, because some of her so-called "friends" have made fun of her incredible singing voice.
I'm not one to say someone has an incredible voice if they don't. I've been singing since I was three, voice lessons since sixth grade, All-East and All-State choirs, as well as several small music scholarships--and piano since the age of 5. I know music like the back of my hand. And her voice is... ridiculous. Amazing. She's a small girl, tiny and tall and willowy, almost, with a rather high-pitched speaking voice... and she looks like what you'd imagine a first soprano such as myself SHOULD look.
But no. She has a voice remniscent of Joss Stone and Natosha Bedingfield, with an Ella Fitzgerald kind of twist, and something remarkably moody just under the surface. It's unique, it's beautiful, and it's completely--COMPLETELY--unexpected.
And now she's scared to sing, because of some crude comments made by her friends. Now I come to the real point.
What is it that causes teenagers to make fun of someone, to hurt their feelings, when we know it only brings them down? I make it a point to try and compliment random people every day--trying to counteract the hatefullness of whatever else happens to them--but it takes around 7 compliments to even begin to erase the hurt from an insult.
What is it, then? Do we like the emotional rise--although it isn't really a rise I particularly want? Do we like the power of hurting someone? Are we just fascinated with our hold over our peers?
It's like a mental battle is going on in the minds of teens. On one side, everything we've learned thus far says, "Don't do it. Don't bring them down. What purpose does that solve? How will it help the world?" And then there's the other side, saying, "Do it. Bring them down. Do you want to feel good, to feel powerful? Then do it. Yield your power to hurt them. DO IT." And the temptation to feel power leads us to harm someone else for no reason. For our own satisfaction.
I, for one, am tired of it. If I can't convince this girl to perform, we might lose the next Ella Fitzgerald... all because of a few hateful comments said to her by people she trusts.
So are we willing to compromise our world in order to feel better about ourselves? There it is. There's the rub!
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
