My Son the Stand Up Comic

In his almost eighteen years of life, my son TH has dreamt of several diferent career paths.

From age three to five, he was going to work with bugs, frogs, or dinosaurs.

From five to eleven, he was going to be a professional hockey player, soccer player, or golfer.

And from eleven to sixteen, he was going to be a rock star.

At no time during any of this career planning have vocations of a more tangible nature crossed his mind like engineering, accounting, or my secret dream: medicine.

Yes, I am one of those mothers.

From the time he was in utero I fantasized about introducing "my son the doctor" to the world; confident in my ability as a parent to turn out a nobel prize winner, or at the very least, a brain surgeon.



It all started so well.

I had him set up with his first set of encyclopedias by age two, and made certain he was counting and reciting the alphabet by the time he hit kindergarten where I knew he would be immediately identified as gifted.

So imagine my surprise at our very first parent teacher conference when his kindergarten teacher had to audacity to imply that TH occasionally tattled.

Bitch!

Obviously she knew nothing about gifted children.

But as is the case with the majority of us in this low paying profession known as parenthood, I've had to cool my jets and re-think my belief that TH is the second incarnation of Ghandi.

The fire he and his best friend "accidentally" started in a back field in grade five, and the near fatal case of influenza he came down with everytime he had a math test helped me come to the realization that as much as I love my son, he is his own person, and isn't perfect.

I accepted long ago that he will be who he is and that his father and I have given him all the tools we can for successful navigation of the adult world. Although we are here to support him every step of the way, the decisions to make about his life and his future belong to him and no one else.

That being said, the prospect of my son on the road with a band has never particularly thrilled me, and around this time last year, I found new hope when he met Paige.

Beautiful, vivacious, personable, intelligent Paige who dreamed of Europe, journalism school, and upward mobility.

Suddenly, my son who had raged against the machine for the bulk of his teenage life, got a hair cut, started shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch, and began tossing me breadcrumbs about the possibility of law school.

People, I don't know who loved this girl more - him or me - and it took my broken heart a long time to recover after they split up.

Truth be told, I still grieve.

Since then he's talked about film school, criminology, a business degree, and his latest: stand up comedy.

Apparently he cracks up all his friends with hilarious stories about his crazy mother.

(I wonder where he gets that from...)

And is planning on doing an open mike night soon.

Which gives me this sudden burst of empathy and understanding for Aurora.

Twenty five years ago, I informed her I was going to pursue my dream of becoming a Broadway actress, and ever since I've harboured hidden resentment that she tried to talk me into secretarial school instead.

Which is why, no matter how badly I wanted to tell TH "Don't do it!"

I didn't.

Just as I didn't discourage his rock star ambitions.

I think sometimes as parents we don't give our kids enough credit for figuring things out for themselves.

So I said nothing other than that I would love to hear his set and that any jokes about me were perfectly fine. After this many years riffing on Aurora, I figure I've got it coming.

In the meantime, and without any prodding from me or his dad, he filled out an application for university in the school of business. He goes for his admission interview next week.

When I asked him "Why business?" he said he figured it would be a good thing to fall back on if the comedy doesn't pan out.

And that's the blog.

Now dish it...

What did you want to do with your life when you graduated from highschool?

Are you doing it, or was John Lennon right when he said "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans?"

As always, my enquiring mind wants to know!