Drama King
I really wanted to call this "Act To the Future!" because it's about high school and the future and things are getting heavy but I stopped myself
I hate when parents ascribe future careers to their toddlers.
For example, when a kid loves animals and his parents assume he’ll be a veterinarian, or when a kid won’t take no for an answer and they predict he’ll grow up to be a lawyer, or when a kid draws scary images and never blinks and the seas tremble in his presence, so they line him up for a career in politics. Give me a break!
I’m sure there are some cases—Tiger Woods, Mozart, Ted Cruz—where early interests or personality treats actually do portend a special talent or a career arc, but those are exceptions to the rule. Because odds are, while your kid may have an irrational and outsized love for snakes right now, he probably won’t be head of the Bronx Zoo in 30 years.
(That’s somehow exactly what happened to a family friend who grew up with pet reptiles, including an alligator, and actually carried that passion into a prestigious career at various zoos and museums by writing all this I am hoping to jinx it because my 7-year-old currently has an irrational and outsized love for snakes and I refuse to have an alligator in my house.)
I say all this as prelude to the fact that I’m about to say:
MY SON IS SO DRAMATIC, HE’S GOING TO BE AN ACTOR!
Okay, probably not. But maybe?
My 13-year-old has always had big emotions, big reactions, big everything. And now, as he prepares for high school (which means something a little bit different here in NYC), it’s starting to look like his drama kingness may be the key to his future. Or at least his next four years.
As I’ve previously discussed - and linked to above - the New York high school admissions process is a bear, and it’s competitive. Some schools rely on random lottery numbers that are assigned to every potential student, some focus on GPAs, some require an admissions test (we have friends whose kids have spent their last six months of Saturdays attending test-prep classes!).
If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you probably know that this year has been full of anxiety and stress, and the high school process has been a large part of that. It’s time-consuming and nerve-wracking and complicated, and Mom and Buried has been crushing it. But despite her hard work, the outcome remains uncertain, and like most parents relying on the DOE, we’re scared that he won’t end up in a school that works for him.
He’s applying to New York arts high schools that offer strong theater programs. Now this doesn’t mean he doesn’t take math and science, and it doesn’t mean that his social studies teacher sings all of the lectures. There are some schools that offer kids with an interest in the arts - theater, music, dance - that have strong concentrations in those areas. And those schools require children to audition for spots. (Like LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, the school on which the ‘80s TV show “Fame'“ was based.)
The arts-based schools require kids to audition. And I won’t lie, for our kid, not only do schools full of creative kids seem like a good idea for him, auditions seemed like the most palatable, and maybe even easiest, way for him to get into a good school. Because he is not the “sit in a chair for three hours and ace a standardized test” kind of kid, thanks to variety of factors, including ADHD and anxiety and the fact that standardized tests are barbaric, etc. Besides, his middle school experience did not bring out the best in him and not only did his academics suffer, transfer schools halfway through skewed his GPA.
But he’s always loved theater, and as we explored potential high schools, he really started to lock in on it as a potential path. And when we started prepping him for his auditions, in which theater applicants need to memorize and perform a pair of monologues on camera. It has been stressful as all hell, and we’ve been up against the looming deadline (which we have to beat anyway because the system always crashes when everyone tries to upload everything - including the audition videos - at the last minute). But a funny thing happened during the process of making him perform and re-record his monologue dozens of times: we realized he’s really good it! He actually has some talent! More importantly, he’s got passion for it, and was willing to do it over and over and over. And he kept getting better and better. It wasn’t easy, but it was awesome.
Getting my 13-year-old to care is one of our most difficult tasks. We’ve spent the whole year trying to make him realize that not only is his future is important, he needs to start working towards it now, and that requires buy-in on something besides video games. It’s starting to look like he’s finally found something that he really does want to work towards.
Does this mean he’s going to be the next Daniel Day-Lewis? Yes, obviously. And if he’s not, I will be furious!
I’m kidding, of course. I’ll happily settle for him becoming the next Jesse Plemons, just so long as he’s passionate about whatever he’s doing, works hard at it, gets a good enough education that he’s not living in my basement in 15 years.
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Pop Culture Stuff
Hate to be a buzzkill but I am going to move this section over to the Friday newsletters. In fact, thanks to a reader suggestion, I might start doing little lists of movies/tv/music I recently enjoyed, as well as some favorite beers I’ve recently enjoyed, and even some books and random other stuff I’ve recently enjoyed, if I manage to read any books or do any random other stuff (besides play Retro Bowl).
I’m also going to give a few readers some advice, so you’d better pay up if you want to see me ruin some people’s lives! They asked, so it’s on them!
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