Momma Kelly

I stood up on the Cullen auditorium stage among the other seniors participating in TCSIT. I had watched this ceremony every year for 5 years, but now, I was a part of it. I stood five feet above the audience, looking out into them under the bright yellow lights. In the front section, I saw Momma Kelly.

She took me under her wing my 7th grade year and gave me the main role in group acting. I was the only 7th grader in the group. I did duet acting that year as well. The next year, I did four events, the most she would allow any student to do. Group acting, bible improv, duets, and prose. 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and 1st respectively. That was it, my middle school TCSIT career. And yet, it means so much more. We practiced before school, during school, after school. Christine Pinson came in to help us our seventh grade year. I felt important. I felt like an actor. I felt special. Then, she was Mrs. Cawyer, master of the Academic Meet. We won her two 1st place trophies.

Now, she's Momma Kelly. I go to her house every Sunday. The relationship has changed from teacher student to almost mother son. She loves our grade, she loves me. So, when I was in trouble this year with my duet (not caring much about it, yet still wanting to succeed), we went to her. But instead of getting help on our duet, we found that she was in need of help with her group acting. So we came in, as former students, and helped them win 2nd place.

I stood on the stage, looking at her, and she was crying. Crying. Maybe she saw little Ben Weaver on the stage, who couldn't make his voice go low enough to play the part of Wolf for group acting, but he tried anyway. Maybe she saw 8th grade Ben Weaver, winning first in prose and bible improv. Maybe she saw freshman Ben Weaver, wearing a shower cap as part of an initiation into the high school youth group. Maybe she saw senior Ben Weaver, about to go to college and leave behind those Sunday DGroups, those TCSIT competitions, that life. Maybe she saw all of them at once.

She cried, but smiled at the same time. She reached out her hand, as if to say "I'm so proud of you" with a gesture. I didn't know how to respond (because I was on stage), so I smiled sheepishly and slightly waved. But I wanted to do something else. I wanted to stay on the stage and bow, bow to her, because the actor that I am began with her. The reason I go to TCSIT is because of her. She was the reason that Academic Meet was, well, was.

A quick picture afterward, accompanied with tears, then she walked one way, and I walked another. Symbolic, if one were looking for it. Nevertheless, that day, I said goodbye to one of the most prominent events in my life. I learned that, through it, I gained one of the most important people in my life. It's sad, but it won't be forever.