My heart overfloweth with pride for the success of my very best friend, Pete.
All through school, Peter was involved with music and the arts beginning with band and then color guard. It started out innocently enough with the french horn and band class. With color guard and dance, performing became an absolute obsession. We have informally diagnosed Pete with ADHD. He cannot sit still and must be drumming with his hands, twirling pens, or doing pirouettes as he talks to you. You can't call the boy not dedicated to his art!
Pete has always done what he loves, despite the frequent teasing through school. I always looked up to him because he simply didn't care too much for the opinions of others. I believe that is why we are friends. We supported each other through thick and thin. He pushed my wheelchair around Washington, DC on a field trip. When he found out I came home from Taiwan and was hospitalized with a foot infection, Pete came home from college to visit me and with his cousin (and my dear friend) heidi, snuck in pizza.
Pete may not have always had our support-we sometimes groaned at the thought of having to watch one more of his summer color guard videos. But still, he twirled, danced, and broke inanimate objects in his dance fever.
Peter spent last summer in Japan on a touring Broadway show entitled "BLAST!" I was so proud of my friend, taking his love for performing to Tokyo. It was the success I always knew Peter would attain. P.S. The show is Emmy and Tony award winning! He made it written in his contract that they would allow him time off to come to my wedding. A true blue friend through it all, he flew in, flew out and kept on performing. His schedule and pace exhaust me.
Last week, I got to see him perform the show myself in Detroit. After a backstage tour (in which we got to see the instruments and stage tricks up close) we took our seats. I began to read the program about what the show was about. And that's when the gravity of it all hit me.
Now when Peter said he was performing a Broadway show nation wide, I was not surprised. Pete is a born performer. What I did not know is that the heavens had opened up and sent THE perfect show for Peter to be performing in. This isn't just a show-this is a show with no plot. This is a show celebrating the art of drum & bugle corps...and COLOR GUARD. To say that Peter was in his element would be the understatement of the year. All of those years of dedication, all of those summers practicing on sweltering football fields culminated into this: a mega moment of glory for my best friend.
Pete was the center of everything-and not just because I know him and I sought him out with each change of stage. Pete is tall and his presence is commanding. His face lit up like a Christmas tree knowing that we, his friends and family, were there to watch him. In his ensemble, it seemed that he was always first in line onto the stage or right in the center of it all. It was obvious to me, his friend, that his height and talent were taken advantage of by choreographers. Aren't they smart?
If, at 26 years old, Peter is already encountering such a high point in his career, the sky is, indeed, the limit. I can hardly wait to see what's next for him and hope that when he's famous he doesn't forget little old me! Here's to you, Pete, for reminding us that everything in life is truly possible.
