Falling into Things

I frequently put myself out there, and exposing myself to different people. I tend to be fairly spontaneous and will decide things at the last minute. In high school, me joining drama was a moment of spontaneity for me and I practically fell into it. It was just before my junior year of high school and I was picking out my classes, most of my classes were AP and Honors classes and I had one elective credit left. I knew by looking at my schedule that signing up for another academic would have driven me insane, but there weren’t any electives that I really wanted to take that year. I had seen how completely wild the drama students were, but I remembered how much I enjoyed acting as a child, so at the last minute, I threw drama onto my preliminary schedule and turned it in. I figured it wouldn’t even fit into my schedule. I got to school on the first day, and it had some how fit into my schedule. When I get to class there are a bunch of freshman running around and one guy talking in a Scottish accent and everything else. I didn’t know anyone. For most of the semester, I was considered the shy, quiet honors student, but none of them even cared. I got to the point where as nervous as I was about performing (especially not having the proper amount of time to memorize it, due to insane amounts of other homework) I grew to enjoy the class.

My second semester schedule didn’t work out and had one opening in it, so literally while sitting in the counselor’s office discussing my schedule, I decided to sign up for Technical Theatre. I loved it! I was building set pieces, painting, playing games, working in teams, working with lighting and sound – everything that I couldn’t do in any of academic classes. It wasn’t long until I joined the stage crew for the musical – once again last minute – and the girl who was supposed to be in charge, ended up passing that job to me, so my first show I was in charge of half the stage. The experience was stressful and chaotic and absolutely amazing. My senior year I practically lived in the theatre and worked on seven shows.

I met so many people with so many backgrounds, yet we were all drawn to the same exact thing. I grew to understand people that I originally thought were strange. It’s one of those things that I will always remember.