Yesterday was a big day.  It was Catherine’s first ballet lesson.  It’s been a long time coming, but was all the sweeter for it.

My daughter is an astonishingly single-minded individual.  She has been wanting to have ballet lessons for at least two years.  We enquired about them when she first started asking, and were told that she would have to wait until she was four.  And so wait we did.

Nothing has deflected her in the intervening period.  Oh sure, her head may have occasionally been turned by a spangly Barbie jacket (particularly if it’s purple) but everything eventually comes back to ballet lessons.  She would go weeks without mentioning them and then, at the oddest moment, she would pipe up: “And when I’m four, I start ballet, right?”  Right, we assured her.

Obviously I’m biased, but I find all this hugely admirable.  These days, with so much to distract us at every turn, it’s easy to forget what you were doing ten minutes ago.  Whether you call it focus or obstinacy depends on your point of view, but I think it’s a useful virtue to possess.  I wish I had more of it myself.

Anyway, she had a wonderful time.  It was worth the wait.  Here is a picture of what satisfaction looks like: