Let Your Kid Do the Thing
Don’t discourage them from a career in the Arts.
I discovered my love for the stage, theatre in particular, in first grade. I was cast as the Shoemaker’s Wife (Opposite my first grade crush, I might add. I still remember his name: Emil Sacco) in The Elves and the Shoemaker. I don’t remember much of the actual play, only that I was completely jazzed to dress up and perform.
Over the next several years, there weren’t many opportunities to act in actual plays, but I grabbed every chance I could to perform in our school choir or band.
In high school, I finally got to do a full-scale musical, playing Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, then Sandy in Grease two years later. I loved the work, the challenges, the pressure to make my characters as believable as possible, to win over an audience. I was smitten and completely convinced that I wanted to pursue theatre as a career. My mother disagreed, however, and wouldn’t pay for any more college if I continued as a theatre major, a completely unacceptable career path. Being a stubborn eighteen-year-old, I called the bluff and dropped out of college. I don’t mean to make my mother out to be the bad guy; I’m sure many parents have and would have done the same thing. Still, I had no support and no idea how to move forward with my dream on my own, so I adjusted focus and went the safe route, something I’ve…
