The road-trip that my son Eric and I took this past Thursday to New York City for a monologue training class was a great day for me for a number of reasons. You see, for those who don’t know this, Eric is now a 16-year old guy finishing up his sophomore year who will have his license in a month or two. He’s also a really bright guy.
After we pulled into Grand Central at 42nd Street and Park Avenue, evidence of his confidence and intelligence showed repeatedly as he guided us, no that’s not an error, Eric successfully guided us quite a few blocks through the always-busy streets of Manhattan and soon found where he needed to be in plenty of time.
He did that by putting the address that we needed to reach into his phone, which, I assume, gave him the best route to take to get where we needed to be. He told me he was ready and then he was off, this talented actor and singer walking the streets of Manhattan as if he lived here all his life. He was so much fun to watch.

Moving on, I can’t remember the address of the place Eric had this meeting, but I’ll bet that Eric and I walked for 25-30 minutes before reaching the intended address.
During that time, I took in the constant swarm of people walking to and fro as well as the towering buildings-skyscrapers- all around us. Because it was New York City, I was not surprised to come upon people sitting on sidewalks, most of them holding signs begging for food or money. All people have challenges in their lives, including some of those on Thursday but I believe that some of those people were not really that down on their luck. They were just too lazy to find a job or finish school so that they can find a job. Even so, I never said anything to any of those people because, truth is, I don’t know their stories so who was I to say a word to them.
After we got to where we needed to be, we got something to eat and relaxed for a short time before he headed to his class. I waited downstairs in the diner we ate until it closed.I tried going up to where I thought the class was but was wrong. That’s when I panicked just a little, but Eric and I soon found one another and headed back to Grand Central for our train-ride home.
Other that slight class-location blunder I just described, this was a super day. Watching my grown son pursue something that he loves so much with such pride and enthusiasm made me a happy man… and a very proud father.