IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!

Today, I read a story from my life that I wrote for the GeNarrations program Goodman Theater began with senior centers. A writing coach meets with us and helps us come up with stories from our lives which fit the theme of the play they are showing. We then perform them, first for our immediate groups, (two meet at Goodman during weekdays under the direction of Julie Ganey). From them, we vote on one to represent our group in a citywide reading, at which all of the centers around the city who have this program take part. When Goodman began this program, it was tried only at Renaissance Court and we all read.

As the program expanded into more centers, we were voting on two people to represent each group. But now, it has grown so much they can only take one from each group. It is really interesting to hear all of the stories. We learn many things about each other that we  may never have gotten to know in simply having conversations with them. These are things one usually only tells closest friends and it takes many years to develop that kind of friendship. At our age, we may not have enough time left to make those kinds of intimate friends anymore. This speeds up the process.

The theme for this session was about enemies and prejudices we experienced in our lives. I shared how I used to avoid popular, successful people, so I never learned how to benefit from “networking.” It is almost impossible to advance in a career or job without having that skill. As they say, “It is not what you know, but who you know.” That is still true today. I have attached a picture of me reading at what I think was my first GeNarrations program.