PERSONAL IMPACT OF ARTS AND CULTURE
In what significant way has an experience with arts and culture influenced your life or thinking?
As a young child I was always pretty shy in public. At home I was outgoing and funny in front of my family, writing and singing songs or doing impressions, but I’d never dream of doing that stuff in public. When I was in 3rd grade, everything changed when my teacher asked me to narrate the school play about the first Thanksgiving. She was very convincing, so I agreed to do it. It went great, and I became a different person after that. I was no longer afraid to be the person I really was, and that influenced me in every aspect of life going forward, even to this day. It’s funny because the same thing is going on with my oldest daughter. She’s 8 and is an absolute cut-up at home but at school she is quiet and reserved. If and when she is ready, we look forward to hopefully using the arts to help her come out of her shell, too.
