Throughout the years of high school, I have learned a lot and grown more as a person. Freshman year I was so quiet, only really talking to my closest friends and maybe a couple of friends I just had classes with. I wasn’t outgoing and kept to myself a lot, the only thing I did that was outgoing was joining the school play. I wasn’t brave enough to be on stage, but still found it exciting to join stage crew and help but together this production. When working backstage in Once Upon a Mattress and Wake Up Call/Seth’s Anxiety, I made sure actors knew their cues and had the props with them before they went on stage.

The first play sophomore year was The Network, during this performances I became a little more social and became friends with the people I was working with and talked to more than just the people backstage. I worked backstage but remember looking out and seeing the actors on stage and thought “that could be me.” So, I talked myself into auditioning for the next play that year, which was Murders in the Heir. In all honesty, it wasn’t the best audition ever. I was so nervous and literally shaking in my boots, it was a wreck. Although I was proud of myself for doing something I wouldn’t have done before.

Junior year I auditioned for The Addams Family, I didn’t get a role but I still thought I should continue to tryout for more plays and do my best in auditioning. I continued to work backstage and my friends joined me in helping put on this performance. During the winter I was inducted into Thespians, this recognized all my achievements in theater and how long I’ve been involved. Then in the spring, I auditioned for Chemo Girl and The Other Plays and got a role. The amount of pride I had for myself was enormous, I couldn’t believe that the same person who thought she would never be on stage, got her first role in a play. Chemo Girl and The Other Plays are four one-act plays and I scored a supporting role in one of the four. It wasn’t the lead role but I had almost the same amount of lines as the lead role, and I took this role and played it the best I could. So after school, I would go over my lines and memorize them before I really needed to. After performing and finishing the first performance that I acted in I knew I wanted to continue this and it was something I really enjoyed.

Then came this year, my senior year. The time where almost everything is your last, so I definitely had to audition for the upcoming play Inlaws, Outlaws and Other People. I was wanting to get the lead but the director cast me with a role I didn’t think I’d get, and right now I’m glad I got that role. Sometimes when people don’t get that role they wanted or sport on the varsity team, they quit or just completely give up. That wasn’t me, I was still grateful to get a role because my past experiences helped me appreciate what’s given to me. Every performance I have participated in made me, even if it was backstage, made me step out of my comfort zone. I had to lead a whole crew backstage and then memorize lines for another performance, all of that changed the person I was. There is no more shy freshman backstage, there is only a bold and confident senior in the spotlight.

NOW–you, the reader–go out and do something you thought you would never do. Be bold and try new things, join the basketball team, participate in speech, audition for the next school play. Trust me, you’ll feel great after you tried it and maybe you won’t get it the first time. I didn’t but did that stop me? No, it didn’t stop me and now I’m acting on stage with the best classmates. Believe you can do it, and you can do anything.