A Little Performer

above:  photo of me at around five years old

I was a young actress in a play that my Mom wrote, directed and produced each year.  I played the role of an angel, and I remember being backstage, with the other angels, in our costumes, all of us girls bunched together, waiting for our cue to emerge out onto the stage.  We were electric, and giggly.

The play unfolded the nativity, yet all the dialouge was in Iñupiaq.  Songs sung, by a choir.  I later became Mary, holding a newly born younger cousin of mine.

Also at a young age, I was an actress in a short local commercial.  I was a patient in a dentist chair.  I remember the bright lights, and another cue, which I executed well.

Now that I am older, I understand that Elders can easily observe traits in young people that are growing up before their eyes.  I have seen glimpses of performance traits within one of my own young nieces, and I have talked to her parents about this.

I imagine my Mom, who took this photo, thinking about my traits that were emerging, and how she thrust me into a commercial, and encouraged me to play an instrument and put me amongst the angels in the wings, waiting to play our part in a larger story.

I like this photo because much later on, I would take on the character of a polar bear.