On a cold Saturday evening my little family bundled up and walked to Museum Mile. The Guggenheim was calling our names.It fills my heart with such happiness to share all the beauty this city of ours has to offer with my littlest love. The arts played an immense part of my childhood and helped shape the woman I am today. I attended my first concert at Madison Square Garden at just eight years old (Whitney Houston, in case you were curious!). That same year I watched actors float across a Broadway stage, belting out classics from Grease as my eyes filled with wonderment. Every weekend my mother made sure to take me to a museum, an art class, or a new neighborhood to explore. I was enrolled in dance and still remember the freedom and grace that our bodies can ignite-. I want this for Lucas.

My budding, curious boy has the world at his fingers. For now it is up to his father and I to show him..to give him the freedom to touch, dance, explore. Academics are important, sure. But in all honesty I don’t believe that a standard classroom regimen is the key to success. In order to find your true calling, to find your passion, to find out who you are, the arts are key. I want Lucas to try an instrument. To feel the smooth keys of a piano beneath his long fingers. I want Lucas to dance! To feel the rhythm of a salsa ballad run through his core. I want Lucas to paint. To watch his own masterpiece take form with every brush stroke. To me, this is living, and I want to give Lucas every opportunity in the world to feel these tangible emotions and make a decision based on his life experiences on what path he chooses to take as an young adult. Maybe he will be a scientist. But he also may very well choose to be the next Felipe Polanco.

So instead of another episode of Sesame Street where a screen was teaching him about the color green, we headed off to the museum. Where he could learn by exploring and experiencing the rich colors (green included ;).