Everyone was looking down at their plates. She looked down at the company program with the events listed on the sheet. Her performance time slot was next. Well, I’m really going to sing in front of my boss and coworkers right now, she thought, re-reading her name over and over again to try to make the seconds tick by faster. Yup. The DJ motioned for her to walk towards the stage.
She stepped to the center of the stage, almost tripping over the back of her dress. I shouldn’t have worn a long dress, she thought to herself. Worst idea ever.
She hadn’t sang in almost a year and half. Sure, she’d been giving vocal lessons, but that wasn’t the same as getting in front of people and performing. And these people were people that she had worked with over the past two years, who had only seen her sitting behind a desk, greeting people, taking phone calls and filing paperwork. Not belting out lyrics from behind a microphone in a floor-length evening gown.
While she sang, people who were milling around and chatting with others—even during other performances that day stopped. They stood and watched her every breath, weird face she made as she played with the melody of the song, shift of weight from one foot to the other underneath her dress. She had wanted to be background noise, but instead she was the center of everyone’s attention; she felt completely exposed.
It had felt like such a monumental experience, but as soon as she sang her last note, everyone went back to their drinks and conversation. There were brief smiles and a couple of uncomfortable stares, but she was able to finish her dessert and drink without further interruption.
The looks on her coworkers’ faces was the most surprising. Later that day, those same coworkers would stop her mid-stride to tell her things like “I didn’t know you could sing,” and “holy moly,” or “what the hell are you doing hiding behind a desk?” Mixed with compliment, admiration, envy, indifference—she couldn’t really tell. The weeks following, coworkers would treat her differently, showing clips of the performance in the hall and during lunch, gossiping when she would walk past.
What a difference a few minutes makes.
Either way, she remembered the feeling of being up on that stage. And she couldn’t forget it now.