Embracing Your Discomfort

We welcomed acclaimed Canadian musician Peter Katz to Greenwood this past Monday. The opportunity to have Peter speak (and sing) with our students was thanks to the generosity of the Perelmuter family.

Peter’s message was about embracing your discomfort and allowing yourself to be vulnerable as you pursue your passion. As a successful singer-songwriter, he brought his message to lifethrough his songs. He spoke of the courage it took for him to sing his original songs at open mics across Toronto when he began his career; this message had to have resonated with the students who performed at our Greenwood Open Mic last Friday, and also with those students who came close to performing, but decided against it. His message may help those students who couldn’t convince themselves to perform to go for it next time.  It was the perfect message to kick off Arts Week at Greenwood.

I agree with the words of French painter Henri Matisse, who said that “Creativity takes courage.” Yesterday’s Groscars and this Thursday’s Spring Arts Showcase are both designed to highlight the creative works of our students, who have courageously expressed themselves through visual art, song, dance, photography, film, drama and more. Many of these projects took not only creativity and courage, but perseverance, pushing students to rebound from failure and try again.

Congratulations to all of our student artists, and thanks to everyone for their continued support of the Arts at Greenwood.