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heart warming story time

so ive been teaching at this summer camp for a week. last week i met the sweetest little girl, who was at the camp along with her wonderfully kind older sister. the little girl is 7. she and her sister both have most likely have anxiety disorders, and the little one cries often. she’s so sunny, though, that she never stays upset very long. usually, she’ll sit down by herself and if i can coax her out of her little ball she’ll bury her head in my shoulder, let me give her an encouraging few sentences, and brighten right back up. this little girl is deaf. she was most likely born deaf, but she has been able to hear for, im guessing, the past five years (the majority) of her life, so she speaks normally and is pretty much used to hearing. this is because of her cochlear implants, she has one in both ear. so the first week of this camp all the kids wanted to play telephone. i said sure, why not? so we all sat in a circle. the little girl only had one of her cochlear implant devices on that day so she had to use a specific ear to play, and could NOT play very well. after a few rounds she had her head buried in her knees and was crying. i felt completely awful, and i immediately switched the game. i hugged her and apologized for playing telephone, and she hugged me back and gave me a huge smile, then ran off to her friends. so i decided to make sure this experience would be a fantastic one for her. i made sure not to play any games with them that required auditory cues. i started teaching the kids a couple sign language terms just for fun, i signed one of the songs they were learning to the little girl and she loved it. i told the other directors about her hard of hearing so they would be lenient when she didn’t hear them tell everyone to sit down. fast forward to today. halfway through the day, she ran over to me and started pulling on my sleeve. “um, ms. hope? the thing that helps me hear…it ran out of battery”, she whispered i sort of froze. i wasn’t sure if she could hear me. i told her we’d go find her sister, and she just looked at me for a moment then said “what?!” pretty loudly. i took her hand and pointed to her sister again. we walked over and i brought them in the hall so the little girl could hear better…. after two seconds of trying to talk to the little one, the older sister covered her mouth with her hand (so she couldn’t lip read) and yelled out “say pumpkin!” and the little one didn’t react at all. i realised she was 100% deaf without that battery. but she’s not panicking. she’s calmly letting me lead her around, and granted, she looks nervous and worried, but she isn’t crying. i tried to mouth “do you want to call your mom?” and she didn’t understand, and she goes “wait….can you say that in sign language? i nodded, and mouthed again while signing YOU WANT CALL YOUR MOM? she. grinned. so. wide. her eyes lit up and she goes "OOOOOooohhh!!!!!! yeah!! yeah, i know her number!!! i know her number!” so i got my phone, and her older sister typed in the number (while tiny one was jumping up and down going “i know her number!! i know it!! i know her number!” and trying to give her sister the numbers. so her mom was coming with a replacement battery, in about an hour. i brought the little girl back into rehearsal and sat her next to me in case i needed to get her attention. after a while, rehearsal stopped because of shenanigans, as usual. poor little child looked to me and said “what’s going on?” but she said it VeRY LOUDLY. i put a finger to my lips and she realised she couldn’t tell how loud to be and stopped talking, just mouthed words. i couldn’t figure out how to sign what was going on, and her sign language is pretty limited anyways, so i pulled out my phone, and typed it into a note. she read it, then smiled real wide again, and typed back “ok!” she took my phone back a couple times to ask me a few other questions about what was happening. after a few minutes, one of the other little girls ran over and said, “i want to talk to you on your phone!!” “what?” “i want….why does [the other girl] get to talk to you on your phone?” “she can’t hear at all right now.” the other little girl stared at me for a second and said, “wait…really???” i nodded, and the other girl thought for a moment. she turned to the little deaf girl. and waved. she waved back. Other girl turned to me again and asked,“ may i talk to her on your phone?” i gave her my phone and nodded. little girl was sO HAPPY that the other kid could talk to her by writing. more kids started coming over. one pointed to the hearing aid device in my hand that i was holding for her and looked completely horrified, saying,“ why did you take that away from her!?” i laughed and told her it died, and she ran over to give the little girl a hug. soon, three or four girls were crowded around her playing with her hair and talking to her on my phone. it warmed my heart how they were so excited just to help this little girl feel included. the first note someone typed to her was “are you ok?” (of course, little girl grinned and nodded before beginning to type back). then came time for her scene, which we decided she could still do. she went onstage, and watched everyone around her and lip read so she didn’t miss a single line. when it was time for their song, i mouthed the words really big, and she watched me the whole time, and actually sang!! you could hardly even tell she wasn’t able to hear the music. she was so excited to be dancing around onstage, skipping and grinning like the sun. after her scene she came back, and was sitting with her friends again. they asked her why she couldn’t hear, and she told them. she then grabbed her device from me and whispered “watch this!!” to the others. she took the magnet part, pressed it to her head, and leaned over. it’s magnetic, so it stuck, and the kids were so impressed and it was so adorable! later it was time for break, and i tried to tell her, but lipreading is difficult, guys. finally i signed the word EAT, and she went “OOOHHH!!! :D” and ran to the break room to get her snack. in the break room, her friends were all sitting with her, and they were so excited to sign CAT to her over and over because that’s what i taught them this morning. they all kept smiling and nodding at each other and mouthing “cat!” and signing it, it was the cutest thing ever. later we played a game and she messed up due to the whole not hearing thing, but she didn’t notice, and no one called her out on it or even told her, once i told them it was because she couldn’t hear the instruction she messed up on. later, her mom brought her a device for each ear and the little sunny girl was happy to be able to talk with her friends again.

im just so touched by how much all these children wanted to include her. they didn’t think she was odd, they just did their best to understand what was up, then put in the effort to communicate so they could all have fun together. it was such an amazing experience and i’m never going to forget it. we’re always the most open minded and enthusiastic when we’re children, and i really hope that this bit of acceptance and inclusion ive taught to them sticks with them the rest of their lives. and i think the rest of the world could stand to learn a few lessons from these kids, their sunny smiles, and their open hearts.

Dragon Door Handle - Simontorya Castle Hungary

I do not know how to articulate this in a concise way that does it justice - sondheim would know, except he probably would brush away what I’m about to say in the way that he often did praise - part of the loss here is now that we’re forever bereft of an artistic bridge between theatre’s past and its future, and how impactful and part of the fabric of our culture broadway is. steve was mentored by rodgers and hammerstein. oscar was not only a teacher, but a surrogate father to him. he worked with leonard bernstein. he passed on that tradition of teaching and fostering new talent by reaching out to young composers, including jonathan larson (who was taken far too soon, but unquestionably had a permanent influence), including lin-manuel miranda, and that barely scratches the surface of the lives he touched, interacted with, guided and changed. all last night and today, names keep popping into my head of people who I know are grieving him, and they’re legends. they’re luminaries of the theatre. sondheim linked our cultural and musical and literary (because his lyrics ARE literary) past to where we’ve traveled and come, where we might be going. I know he said stop worrying where you’re going, but without the compass he provided, where would we be? stop worrying if your vision is new, but his always was, and its innovation and originality and moving complexity was because he was a keen observer of the current times, but also cherished the lessons he learned from those artists past. there are endless, countless things to say about the history of musical theatre and its composers and lyricists and writers, but no one had the perspective and rich perception of it that he did because he was there. his legacy lit the way because he was a part of artistic history at every turn. so it’s not only his loss as an extraordinary human being, or the realization that we won’t have new creations from him now, it’s also a grief for that piece of the past. his life kept that here with us for so long, and we were better for it.

he loved teaching. he considered it sacred. it’s our job now to keep carrying those memories and lessons on, if we can honor him in any way, it’s to keep teaching one another. his memory IS a blessing and we’ve been entrusted with it. careful the tale you tell, that is the spell. keep telling it.

Good evening! Here's the Hamilcoins comic that I forgot to post this morning. Lotta stuff going on. Have a nice night!

Hello, tumblr! This is my first HAMILCOINS comic. Many more to come eventually

Filoboletus manipularis for Funguary 👽

Hello! After technical difficulties (again) here is the Hamilcoins comic I posted this morning. Have a great afternoon!

Hey do you want to listen to a really good musical? Do you want a musical where the main characters are wlw?

Listen to The Prom! It’s about two lesbians who want to go to prom together! 

Hello! Sorry for the lack of comics this week, we were on break. We introduce a new character today, though! Say hello to Hamilton's love! Have a great day!