To grow up; all you need is love with a little help from your friends

When I think of my own upbringing in terms of the person whom I've become today (the person I am becoming would be more correct) I have to think of two major pieces, or agents of socialization. My parents are the first, then comes kindergarten.

Mother and father are everything. When italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni accepted his Palme d' ore prize at the cannes film festival, he thanked his parents who "brought me down from Heaven and then put me back there". When it comes down to an overall look to my childhood, I share Benigni's feelings. Everything I am, I am thanks to, and in spite of - which is just as important, and just as worth thanking - them. Their marriage was a conflicted one, and when I was ten years old, they divorced. This was a critical moment for me and for my whole family. But, never mind the differences between them, I always found they stood by me when I needed them. I would say the main thing my parents gave me is love. If love sounds as a cliche, I would worn the skeptical reader: Even when affection is not enough to solve problems, in my case, I could only overcome crisis' (and I went through pretty serious ones) based on my family's care for me.

Just beside my parents, in order of importance comes my kindergarten. To this day I am grateful that I attended a Montessori school in Olivos, Buenos Aires. I think this has probably been the most important and happy period of my life. As a little child, I didn't notice the importance of this process, and couldn't understand it because I was too busy experiencing it. Now, as an adult, I look back and begin to understand. I was provided with the same affection as back home. But, besides that, I think the fact that Montessori kindergartens work with every sense in the child's development has proven very useful, even to this day. This approach has provided me with a key feature: curiosity. Curiosity has made me intelligent and hungry for knowledge; I think this is an advantage in this world which is constantly changing.

Finally, experimenting with every sense has contributed with a holistic approach to life in general, and specifically to art, which is what I intend living on. I will probably become a film director, but can also play guitar, sing, write, act, etc. Learning and allowing myself to experiment with any art form I am curious with will always add a richer dimension to everything I want to create. Who knows, I might even get paid for being creative some day...

-M. Meconi, class of 1984