12 thoughts on “Full Disclosure: Not Everyone Is an Athlete

  1. Susie, glad to hear you escaped your harrowing experience with your humor obviously intact and that the show was a success. Also thought the underlying theme in your column was a good one, that the young actors, musicians, dancers and artists in our schools deserve recognition, too. Kudos to the Newcanaanite for featuring the high school students who made Western Regionals.

  2. Susan – this is my favorite one yet, and I’ve loved them all! Such a great message – and I cannot stop laughing over “tour of duty.” Thank you for sharing your incredible talent with all of us!

  3. Always such a pleasure to read Susan Gelvin! As soon as I finish one of these I pine for the next. Thank you, Susan, for your wisdom and humor.

  4. Thank you for volunteering Susan. My NCHS senior daughter will be our second to graduate from the junior high and high school programs that have truly benefited both her and her older sister. Volunteer parents (and often their generous donations) make this wonderful program possible at both levels. My wife has sewn costumes for the high school for the past 9 years. The teamwork both behind and onstage are amazing. Congrats to the kids for another successful show! Thanks for the laugh too!

  5. Hear, hear! Effort is the key and the example. Did they try? Were they prepared? The long road of arts versus athletics will never be fully understood despite the basic common denominator of effort and focus. We applaud both and we teach the applauding of both, for that advances society. Tomorrow the attention happens to be on the athletic field. Go Rams and thank you for this presentation. Always try….

  6. Susan, A truly inspiring message, opening our minds to what speaks to each child. Your witty description of chaperoning had me in stitches! This was so well written and I look forward to reading the next!

  7. Susan Gelvin you totally rock for writing this piece. So often our the-a-ter kids are overlooked. The schools in this town put on the best productions!!! We have awesome directors and Amazing volunteers. So lucky for us that we now have you in the trenches with us. BRING ON HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ? and ANYTHING GOES ?

  8. I just backstage chaperoned the 6 year old angels at the NCDA nutcracker performance at the high school tonight and fully relate to this. It is absolutely amazing what these kids can pull off on stage while backstage being complete nutballs ?. I only hope though that Emma continues this as it’s just awesome to be a part of the arts as well as sports in this community.

  9. Loved that your Liam was involved in his school musical! I always feel so lucky to have the “ mini Broadway “ in our backyards!

  10. Great article. When I was Board of Education Chairman some years ago our then Superintendent David Abbey used to say, “Nick, we want to be Athens, not Sparta.” And as a former athlete-musician, I fully agreed with him.

    If you do it right (and I think we have as a town – just take one look at the new Saxe Auditorium and the accompanying arts and music facilities), you can have the best of both worlds.

  11. Love this Susan! All of us moms of middle school boys can relate and I can’t stop laughing about the “maniacs” with tissue box machetes and pencil shivs! In the spring you have to write about 6th grade field day. So grateful for the teachers who herd these rabid squirrels every day.

  12. Huzzah! A conversation has begun on Social Media about the KEY differences between exploring and integrating the Arts into our family life, and the ambitious pursuit of athletic competition (read: travel teams at age 6– hoping to play the sport our parents played at uni), and personal excellence. One is a process, an experience that is, emotionally, unique—no winners, no losers, and when good people chaperone, no BODY ever gets hurt. It’s fun. The other is developmentally questionable, resulting in physical injuries that, more often than not, cause chronic pain for the entire life of the injured body. I’ve spoken to 12 year old girls who’ve, already, twice dislocated their shoulders, and were looking forward to summer surgery when hockey season was over. We’re talking about exploring the human condition, like one can when they participate in a play, like, Alice in Wonderland, versus humans experiencing the condition of physical trauma.

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