“Noblesville High school winter guard you make take the floor in competition.”

This statement is enough to get me high on life. Nothing is more thrilling then the moments we take the floor in competition. Getting high on performing is the sole reason I perform. If you’ve never performed, you are truly missing out on what it means to be high on life.

If you’ve never been a performer, it might be hard to understand the feeling of a high from performing, but here’s a few things that performers live for and that make them live for performing.

Moments when the crowd cheers.

These are the moments that make you the happiest. The fact the crowd thought something you did was cool, makes you feel so good. These are the moments that you realize all the word work has really paid off. These are the moments you realize that what you are doing is interesting to other people. Crowd cheering moments are my favorite moments during performances. They make me smile and truly make me understand that what I am doing impacts people.

Connections with the audience.

When performing, we are performing for the audience and the moments that you connect with them are wonderful. These are the moments you make eye contact with someone and smile a little bigger, and they smile back. They're the moments that you realize someone is truly watching what you are doing and you are impacting their life in a positive way. You are making them happy, and even if you just connect with one person during that performance, you have changed that one person’s life.

All the blood, sweat, and tears.

This one might sound weird, but as performers, we live for the blood, sweat, and tears. These are the moments that we word so hard to reach. The moments that we push beyond where we are as performer and go outside what is comfortable. The moments we grow our bubble of what we can do. We live for the high of practicing 2 hours a day for 5 days, just to perform for 5 minutes. All the blood, sweat, and tears help us get back to that feeling of high during a performance. Without every speck of blood, every ounce of sweat, and every drop of tears, we wouldn’t be able to get there. Sometimes practices are hard and rough, but everyone is enjoyable and helps us reach that high feeling again.

Impacting people.

Performing is all about impacting people and allowing them to get a story from the performance you put on. The moments you see the crowd laughing, smiling, and crying are the moments you remember for a life time. These are the moments that make you high because you know all that hard work has impacted this person’s life and changed them forever. The moments the audience feel what you want them to feel and you have that impact on them, helps you remember why you started performing.

The announcement.

The announcement right before the performance begins is a natural high. It gets performers super excited about performing. It’s the moment you realize you are about to change peoples’ lives and better their moods. It’s the moment you realize that you’ve worked so hard for this moment and you better soak up every single second of it. It’s also the moment you realize how special it is that you get to share time with complete strangers who care about what you are passionate about. No moment is ever as special as the moment your group is announced before you perform. Nothing makes a performer higher on life than this moment.

The moments we get in uniform.

The moment a performer gets in uniform the high begins. The thrill of getting in this unique costume is unbelievable. Performers have put their heart and soul into prepping for the occasions and the feelings that are about to come with performing. Something as simple as zipping up the uniform or buttoning that last button helps begin that heart racing time, that is performing. Uniforms are something special that a performer only puts on minutes before they get to enjoy the high on life feeling!

In the end there are so many things in life that we could be addicted to but to be addicted to impacting people, and making ourselves better, is truly the best feeling ever.

Walking off the field, stage, or gym floor are the precious times in life that make me happiest. The thrill from performing is a feeling you can’t recreate until you perform again. It is truly a life changing experience. Start something new today, perform for people! Once you feel what it’s like to truly be high on life and feel your heart racing from happiness, you will be addicted and you’ll crave that feeling.

Practice like you've never won. Perform like you've never lost.