It’s no secret that sometimes you have to leave home to find yourself. The small-town kid who goes to the big city to pursue his or her dream is the standard yarn. The point was brought home to me this summer watching two boys, one my son, find joyful work away from home.

I have written before about Zac, a Narrowsburg native, who is spending his freshman to sophomore summer in New York City finding work in his chosen field of filmmaking. Zac’s latest conquest is a job on the TV show “Third Watch.” His eyes widen when he speaks of it. Clearly, for him, it is thrilling work. His chances of getting the kind of work he loves were greater in Manhattan than in Narrowsburg.

My son Conor, a city boy, has been having an equally thrilling summer in small upstate towns, pursuing the same dream. He spent July at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) in Cazenovia, NY. Nobody in his big-city high school told him about this program, which offers intensive training for four weeks every summer in many different arts disciplines, including filmmaking.

It was only through the serendipity of seeing a poster on the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance bulletin board in Narrowsburg that we were able to steer him through the process of applying for admission this summer. In fact, in my unscientific poll of students in the NYSSSA program that tutored students in photography, film, video and computer arts, most of the selectively chosen students were from small-town high schools. All of those I asked said that a favorite teacher or advisor had told them about the opportunity.

I was grateful that Conor had been selected for the program after a rigorous, college-style application process, but I wondered how many other equally worthy, artistically-inclined teenagers simply didn’t know about it. It is hard for creative types to flourish in the academic salt mines of high school. A chance to spend a month “living, breathing and dreaming film,” as Conor wrote in a letter home, is what can make the months of September through June bearable for kids like my son.

After NYSSSA, we had nothing more planned for Conor’s summer than long days spent swimming, daydreaming and reading, with the occasional chore of fence-painting thrown in for good measure. In another piece of serendipity however, we heard about a film being made in Milford, PA. The company was looking for local kids to serve as interns.

Conor was ambivalent at first. He had been looking forward to some down time before school started again. But his film teacher, Madame Gzhen, convinced him that this was a great opportunity. (Note to parents: Always use a third party when trying to exert influence over your children.)

In my experience, the best indicator of your child’s true nature is how they behave when you’re not around. I guess my son will be all right. He made himself valuable to the movie crew by responding to all demands with energy and good nature. Before long, the various production departments were vying for him.

A “lazy bum” when it comes to household chores, he became a superhero on the movie set. He is learning first-hand what it takes to put a film on the screen, and he is growing up in the process.

Last weekend he told me that he had a small epiphany as he was making phone calls for the production company. He heard himself saying “Hi, this is Conor from Pizza Boy Productions,” to a voice on the other line. “I thought, hey, I’m a grown-up,” he said, “I’m working. I go to work.”

I guess he could get that feeling making change at a fast food joint, but what a life—doing what you love and working, too.