Back to School

This morning I was out taking a nice jog through my neighborhood. It was sunny, but cool...the perfect day for a little run. As I jogged past the church/school that is near my house (yes, it is both church and school - God is a multi-tasker!), there was a woman who had just dropped her child off and was walking back to the mini-van where her younger boy sat strapped in and smiling in his little car seat.

I thought...it's that time of year. Back to school! Ever since graduating from college and moving to New York City seven long years ago, I haven't even been aware of that holiday CVS refers to as "Back to School." Actually, I lie...I couldn't wait to get back to college...Kindergarten through high school were the years when the "Back to School" sales made you want to dress up like a Wendy's Frosty and run off to New York City in pursuit of higher meaning:

On my first day of Kindergarten, I screamed and cried. I screamed a lot. I cried a lot. I screamed and cried so much that all the other kids started screaming and crying...half of them out of fear, the other half uniting in my brilliant protest.

I may have been an emotionally disturbed child...or, as my dad would say "overly sensitive"...BUT maybe...MAYBE...I had some premonition that everything in life would go downhill from this point on.

I mean, think about it. Before your first day of Kindergarten, life is the best vacation ever! At least it was in the beautiful middle-class suburb of North Haven, Connecticut where I grew up. All I did all day was suck on toys, ride around in the car and watch television. Now all of a sudden I have to wear something that looks like this:

and eat food that looks like this:


Hello! Put me back in the car seat!

Before you know it, another twenty years have passed (only 1/4 of an average lifetime!) and you are living in New York City, you are poor because you've decided it would be a good idea to work in theatre, and you have been in love. Can life get any worse!?

But that was twenty-five. At this point, as I jogged by the little boy in his car seat at the start of my 47th day of my 28th year on this planet we call earth, I felt pretty great. Hell! It's 8:30am and I am running! I live in New York City! I've been in love! And I work in theatre!

However, I will admit...as I'm sure many of us can...that sometimes I feel like I am still searching for a higher meaning...