It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra’s 1946 film follows an angel as he guides suicidal businessman George Bailey through his life story and shows him the positive impact he’s had on the lives around him. The tearjerker is a holiday classic for a good reason. As one year draws to a close and another begins, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the previous 12 months – its successes, losses, changes — and assess what we want to do better and differently in the year ahead.
Or in some cases, the previous 15 years…
Yesterday, I received what I would call an early Christmas present. My own angel revealing my past, if you will. I heard from a 22-year-old graduate performing arts student (let’s call her M), who is pursuing her passion. It’s been a privilege to know her for nearly a decade and a half.
When I moved to New York in the mid-1990s, I signed up to be a volunteer tutor at East Harlem Tutorial Program, a well-respected center that provides one-on-one tutoring to students of all levels and abilities. My tutee, whom I will call A, is M’s brother. At our first session eight-year-old A cried because he didn’t want to read at all. Not one word. Nothing. I totally understood. When I was five-years-old, I decided that I would never read. I enjoyed being read to so much I fought learning how to do so on my own. I eventually changed my mind. And over the course of six years, A changed his too.
From 1996 until 2002, I looked forward to Monday nights, working on reading (yes reading!), science, math, writing and even filmmaking with A. We bonded over our shared love of poetry, scientific experiments, early Destiny’s Child and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Not only the TV series, but the books based on the TV series. We ate Terra Chips, his favorite, at the start of every tutoring session, and occasionally went on field trips to museums, theater, and the top of the Empire State Building. M also joined us on the field trips with her own tutor along for the ride. The time flew by. When their family moved to another state with better high schools, my Monday nights were less entertaining, less full, less everything.
Yesterday, I sent M a birthday greeting on Facebook, and she wrote me the following:
I just wanted to let you know that I am a graduate performing arts student and A is in college. I wanted to thank you for introducing us to different types of art and theater. Just in case you didn’t know you have been a great and awesome influence in our lives and your volunteer work and service has encouraged me to reach out and do the same for others.
An early Christmas present indeed. And believe me, I’ve had a few, like winning the Wii last week.
Anthony, Mozz and I started AMZ Creative, LLC to “enhance the human experience” through entertainment. M’s message reminded me that introducing young audiences to the arts is extremely important and influential. When I took A and M to see Pinocchio and other shows, I didn’t have an agenda. I wasn’t even working in theater at the time. I just wanted to expose them to experiences that they would enjoy and hopefully learn from. And that paid off in spades.
Here’s to enhancing the human experience in everything we do this holiday season and beyond…
Ames
Zipoy
AMZ Creative 