Funny Business

So... Tanner is in grade 12 this year, which means either "victory lap" or continuing his education next fall. He has always had a strong flair for the dramatic, dressing up and making up 'plays'  for he and his cousins to perform at family get-togethers.  It's not surprising that he has found himself in the 'Specialist High Skills Major' (SHSM) program for Drama at Central High.  He performs in musicals and plays, won an award for Excellence in Acting in a provincial competition last year and this year is considering writing and possibly directing his own play for the school's Spring Arts Festival.

So the focus and direction are there... the question is, where to take it from here?

This afternoon we went to Humber College in Toronto, so Tanner could learn more about something that has him genuinely excited - their Comedy Writing and Performance program.  It's a two year diploma program with close ties to Yuk Yuk's comedy club, with guest lecturers like Colin Mochrie (whom I adore), Eugene Levy, and Billy Crystal, just to name a few.

The course names alone made me laugh, which I guess is good for a comedy program.  Things like Stand-up Comedy, Improv, History of Comedy, Comedy Scriptwriting and Physical Comedy - nothing even remotely like the typical academic roster I'd guess most of us were confronted with at the college or university level.

He's a little excited.  A LITTLE?  Hell, I'm excited!!

I'm excited that he has such a specific interest, and that it can be met somewhere close to home.  I'm excited that the program director seems very accommodating and reassuring, telling Tanner that, although an audition using a 2-minute self-written piece is required, most applicants aren't too good, and it's more fun than anything else.  I'm most excited that he's so excited.

And yet... there's that part of me that was hoping he'd go for the extra semester at high school.  Take a little extra time, improve some grades, hang out.  Maybe stay young, need his mother, all that.  It's quite something to be confronted with a college-aged kid who is so pumped about moving on.  I feel like the work of raising him has been successful so far, as what we're ultimately trying to do is get them ready to go out into the world and find something that makes them happy.  And we may well be on the way to that.  And I am truly, genuinely glad for that.

And yet...