(Open letter to my music kids)

Dear drumset player:
What possessed you today to accidentally start our performance with the wrong piece? It's FINALS. At a REGIONAL. With (name redacted) as a judge!!! You're the only senior in the group, the only kid over 18, and you make a mistake that the 12-year-olds wouldn't have made!!!

Dear everyone else in the group:
Thanks for having the presence of mind to save the performance. Even with the total scramble to get to an instrument that remotely matches what you should be on during the piece he started with, it was a pretty darn good performance. You guys better hope (judge) is at our national competition, because he's very impressed with that recovery. And also laughing his butt off at the whole situation.

Sincerely,
Your exasperated teacher, who had to wait 4 agonizing hours for a drink after that near-catastrophe. I will probably wake up tomorrow with a whole head full of gray hair.