A Show She Wished Was Cancelled

It was the day of the concert and the Lizard was nervous. The concert was hours away but the Lizard was already feeling butterflies in her stomach. Maybe this concert was a bad idea after all.

The Lizard had put up flyers around the forest to invite folks to the concert she had planned but now she wished that she hadn't done that. She had only been playing guitar for a little while and maybe she jumped the gun on thinking she had the skills to pull off a full concert.

In any case, folks were expecting a show tonight and she was Effed. Many of her friends had explicitly told her how excited they were for her show. Just last week at the grocery store she had run into her friend Maryanne, a Squirrel:

"Hey Neeta, I can't wait for your concert next week!" Maryanne yelled from across the produce section and before Neeta could reply several other shoppers in the produce aisle had their interest piqued:

"Oh, a concert? In our forest? When is it?" A Raccoon asked.

"It's next week, by the big tree!" Maryanne replied, then pointing to Neeta, "She can play guitar and she's going to perform for us!"

"Oh, that's wonderful!" A Parakeet added, "Will the concert be child-friendly?"

Everyone looked at Neeta for an answer. The show was in fact child friendly but the looming doubt and nervousness was creeping and swirling around Neeta's head already. She wanted so badly to say that the concert wasn't child-friendly so as to discourage more people from attending the show…

"Yes, it's child-friendly," Neeta replied, reluctantly, "Just me and my guitar."

And just like that, the whole produce section of this grocery store was going to be at Neeta's concert. This concert was shaping up to be very well-attended and Neeta was beginning to panic pretty hardcore.

She practiced as much as she could, day and night, night and day. She dreamt of playing guitar in her sleep. When it came down to it Neeta really did love playing the guitar, she loved it a lot. She just wasn't sure if she was ready to play for people in a concert setting, with there expectations.

When the concert finally started and Neeta took the stage, she looked out at a sea of her friends, family, and strangers. Neeta closed her eyes and started playing, just like she had in practice. After the song and hearing her first applause, Neeta loosened up, remembered how much she enjoyed playing guitar, and the reason for having the concert was to share her joy of playing with everyone else. That made things a lot easier. She relaxed, had fun, and blew the roof off of the place.

If only she had known the outcome of the concert a week ago, then she wouldn't have been sick with panic all this time. But if she hadn't been sick with panic all week who knows how well the concert would have gone?

"That can't be the answer though," Neeta thought to herself. "Making yourself sick so that you can do better can't be the answer. It just can't be."

Then she remembered again how much she loved playing her guitar, and how the whole reason for the concert was to share her love of guitar with others. She thought maybe the answer was somewhere in there, but she couldn't be certain, as the doubt started creeping in again.