“Thanks for basically making my life.”
TeenTixers,
Today, we got this email from long time TeenTix member Tucker Cholvin (he is all grown-up now, so he gets a last name.) We were so touched by it, and we wanted to share it with you.
This is what it's all about.
Love,
Holly, Pete, Leah, and Kyle (aka Team TeenTix)
Subject: I'M 20 NOW
Message:
Hey,
So yesterday I had my twentieth birthday, which involved a lot of cake and bemoaning the tragedy that I'm not allowed to do anything cool and new on this birthday. Reflecting on this today, though, I realized that one thing has changed for me, though--I've aged out of TeenTix, and I can probably put the pass I still keep in my wallet up on a bulletin board somewhere. I wanted to drop you a line and say thanks for something that ultimately became a huge part of my teenage years and who I am today.
I really, really, really loved TeenTix. I don't know if being cheap led to TeenTix or if TeenTix led to being cheap, but for the last few years both have been a very important part of my life and natural best friends. For the last five years, TeenTix has given me access to literally thousands of dollars worth of art, and I'd be surprised if I paid more than $50 to see all of that. What's cool is that while I would not have paid thousands of dollars to see all that art if given the choice as a 15 year old, as a 20 year old today the experiences I've had through TeenTix are easily worth thousands to me. Zillions. Hell, I would have cut off an arm to see all the ballet I've seen alone, let alone everything else. So that's thing number one: TeenTix taught me the value of art and having it in my life. I love art. Art art art art art.
TeenTix also gave me a really rich understanding of what art is, exactly. If you had asked me when I was 15 about what art really was, I would have probably said the symphony, the ballet, the opera, and whatever the Rep happened to be playing. And that was about it for me. What I've been able to do for the last five years is figure out that the art scene in Seattle is about ten thousand miles across and just as deep. There is so much freaking art in this town that it boggles the mind. TeenTix has not made me into a Dance or Art History Major, but I can speak with a decent level of education about not just Balanchine, but Ulysses Dove, Tharp, and Martha Graham. Seeing shows at On the Boards made me ask what art is and can be, exactly. Seeing a show at the Rep and seeing Jungle Woman of the Jungle on an off-night at Unexpected Productions has given me a very, very illustrative conception of what can happen inside a theatre alone. So there's thing two.
I also wanted to let you know that TeenTix has absolutely lived up to its stated objectives with me. Right now I am a poor college student, and right now I really resent that I am not able to get $5 tickets to shows anymore. That will suck for a while. But you should tell your participating organizations that literally the minute I have the money I am going to march right up to their box offices and give it all to them. So much money. That goes for PNB, for art museums, for plays, for everything. I have been eating it up for the last few years and I have developed quite an appetite for it. So let the good people who do TeenTix know that for every dollar they have lost on me in the last few years will be paid threefold back to them once I am employed.
Finally, TeenTix has made me into a much more interesting person. The TeenTix calendar makes it very easy to go and do s**t, which as a teenager is often quite challenging. But with TeenTix me and my friends could just look up whatever was playing at NWFF or anywhere else around town on any given night and go see that. I am very serious when I say that I have spent more time at the film forum than I have in any given romantic relationship. I am very happy about that. I have seen such good documentaries, foreign flicks, and Soviet propaganda films there, and so much good, weird, unexpected art everywhere else. I hesitate to talk about On the Boards because I lack the adjectives, but a lot of it happened there (I'm thinking back to Rimini Protokoll). TeenTix has opened my mind to new art forms, new experiences, and I can actually talk to people about it. I've seen like one or two of the Oscar-nominated films this year, but I can really talk to you about all the good stuff I saw at SIFF this summer (and damn, was it good).
TeenTix/Holly/Pete/SCP: Thanks for basically making my life.
Best always,
Tucker
