I’ll start off by saying that I acknowledge and have accepted that I am way too attached to my high school drama class. Any of them that are reading this right now are probably thinking, “Chill.” While I respond with, "Love you more!" I was that girl that was always advocating that we be best friends. All of us. Even when it was super obvious that the confident, outspoken class clown was clearly never going to be best friends with the quiet, laid back nerd. But I wanted desperately for everyone to feel like they belonged in this crazy beautiful (but mostly crazy) group of people that were all so unique but also exactly the same.
How I ended up falling in love with this group was a long and hard journey but it was definitely worth it. After many years of trying to fit in with different crowds but never feeling like I belonged, I decided to wholeheartedly try this group out. It was the beginning of my senior year and I had just gone through a season of my life that was really hard. I was struggling with my self-worth and I felt like I was constantly saying, “I’m just not in a good place right now.” I decided that I was going to make the best of my senior year no matter what life threw at me. It was when I walked into my 7th period theater class, looked around the room at all of the familiar faces, and thought, “Well I guess I’ll give it a try.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the best decision I was going to make all year.
At lunch instead of sitting with the crowd that I knew would be talking about typical “lunch table” things, I decided to sit with the eight smiling faces waving me over that I knew I would be spending the majority of my school days with anyway. Lunch time turned into class time which turned into rehearsal time which turned into showtime.
Where most people would think of coming to school at 8 a.m. and not leaving until 6 p.m. would be hell, I LOVED it. It was days like these that I learned to love who I was again. Watching a group of people love each other enough to be able to see that we all have problems but enjoy each other anyway, was the best thing I have ever gotten to be a part of. I fell in love with the idea that someone can walk into a room and have 30 new best friends, no questions asked. We were a stereotypical theater class. Yes, whoever you just pictured in your head, that was us. I would describe myself as the girl that was just as quirky as everyone else in the room but wasn’t ready to admit it. These were people that I had been in class with for three years but never allowed myself to embrace who they were or what they had to offer. I never imagined that I would be slapped in the face by Thespis himself, telling me to open my eyes and let these people be a part of my story.
I wish there was more I could do to thank them for being a great group of people that showed me over and over again that I am so loved. I would love to thank my director for giving me so many chances to shine. I wish there was a way to really thank my class for being the reason that my senior year was the best year of my life. I wish I could thank the cast for understanding that forgiveness is more important than pride. I would thank them for being willing to talk through our conflicts and come to a healthy compromise to make sure that everyone is happy. I wish I could thank them more for loving themselves and knowing that they deserve nothing but the best. Most of all, I would thank them for letting me love on them because that did immeasurably more for me than they could ever imagine.
Take a theater class. I can’t promise you that your experience will be as extraordinary as mine, but that group of people may just be what it takes for you to learn to love yourself again.
