Pak më shumë se tre vjet më parë, gruaja ime dhe unë nënshkruar djalin tim për një aktivitet të verës, The Midland Park Players. This is a drama group that spends about three or four weeks preparing for a play and then showing it to the parents, friends and relatives. It’s always been done very well.

Unë nuk e di nëse fëmija e çdokujt është sikurse kjo, but my son is extremely reluctant to try new things. Knowing this, we signed him up for the program. We’ve found that it’s best to alert him to these kinds of things early and often. Kështu, në mënyrë për të kapërcyer hezitimin e tij natyrore, Ne i tha atij herët dhe bëri çmos për ta bërë atë të tingëllojë si fun, etj. Even with a multi-month advertising campaign, he still wasn’t convinced. We forced him to do, megjithëse, dhe siç është shpesh rasti, he had a great time.

Me kohë të dytin vit mbështjellë rreth, he had once again convinced himself that he didn’t want to participate. Por, ne kishim nënshkruar atë dhe mbi zero-ditore, I dropped him off one morning at the high school where they practice. When I went to pick him up after lunch, ai ishte shumë i emocionuar, të gjitha buzëqesh dhe njoftoi, "The play is the Velveteen Rabbit and I want to be the Rabbit". He had spent literally months carrying on (nganjëherë hysterically) rreth asaj se si ai nuk duan të kenë asgjë të bëjë me lojtarët park dhe pas ditës së parë, he wants to be the lead role in the play. We’ve seen this pattern before.

(Pjesa më e madhe për habinë tonë, ai e bëri të marrë rolin e lepur dhe ai ishte mahnitës.)

Fast forward a few years. He’s been in Park Players three times now, so he’s something of a veteran. This summer (2008), Players starts up again. Në kohë të thotë, Ai është i bindur më në fund ai na vërtet doesn’t want to play soccer and he never liked basketball. That left him with no extra-curricular activities for late Winter / early Spring. A client with whom I was working mentioned that his daughter was in a program called Stage Right. Stage right is a slightly more expensive version of Park Players and it’s not in my town, but adjacent to it. Perfect.

The thing to know about that town is that it’s practically another country in terms of wealth. It has a high-frequency train right to Wall Street and NYC in general. It’s just a wealthy place. One of the on-going family discussion themes is whether we should have moved to that town instead of where we live now. It’s a bigger town, shkolla e saj ofrojnë programe më shumë për fëmijët, etj. My wife grew up in that town and her parents live there, so we are "hooked in" despite not living there. I personally grew up in different circumstances in Massachusetts, so I don’t have a lot to say about this during family dinner conversation. This isn’t to say that we aren’t very happy where we live. We just know that that town is a level above our town economically.

Stage Right’s next program started too soon for us to launch our normal advertising campaign to overcome my son’s reluctance. This is when he came up with one my personal favorite arguments against doing something: "Friday nights are kryesor netë për overs gjumit!" Stage Right was going to interfere with his weekend socials.

Vjen dita, kemi sjellë atë atje and drop atë jashtë dhe si me çdo gjë tjetër, dashuria e tij e natyrshme e të qenit gjallë vetëm mori përsipër dhe ai është të paturit e një kohë të mirë me të.

Kjo fundjavë kaluarën gruaja ime ishte duke folur për atë dhe për herë të parë, I think he’s tailoring his discussions very precisely for his audience. She had asked him how Stage Right compares to Midland Park Players. He tells her that "In Park Players, we have teenagers that help us out. There aren’t any in in Stage Right. In Park Players, teenagers make all props. In Stage Right, we have to bring our own props. We have to do everything. And then he twists the knife: "I thought this was supposed to be a rich town."

Të gjitha këto vite, I never really thought that he was hearing or understanding anything as it related to the "rich town". Megjithatë, ajo rezulton se ai ishte.

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