I remember when I first announced that I was going to college for a Theatre Arts degree, one of my close friends said: "I'm sorry, but that sounds like a waste of money. You're just going to school to learn how to pretend better?" This stuck with me for a while. I constantly ask myself, "Is that all acting is? Is acting just pretending?"

It took me a while to come to my senses, but I made the realization that acting is much more than just "pretending." On my first day of acting class, my classmates and I learned that "Acting is living truthfully under an imaginary circumstance." In other words, while the situation may not actually be happening in reality, our emotions, feelings, and reactions are very real and truthful.

We started acting out scenes, but instead of giving us lines, our professor told us to simply state to our acting partner how we were feeling. For each scene, you would hear actors saying "I feel upset," "I feel happy," or "I feel hurt," based on the circumstance they were in. But there was one sentence that really stuck with me: "You make me feel..."

It never occurred to me that by being truthful with someone, you would actually gain more out of the situation. If you just stand there and say "I'm fine," or "I'm just tired," the scene won't go anywhere. The same goes for our everyday lives. If we just lie about how we're feeling, are we really growing or moving on with our lives?

I decided to take what I learned in class, and apply it to my everyday life. I can honestly say that my world opened up into a much broader place. By being truthful with how I was feeling, I got more out of life. While there were times when my honesty would hurt people, "You make me feel like I'm not enough," or "I feel hurt," it actually would make our relationship stronger. The more my friends and family knew how I was feeling, the more fulfilled and happier with my life I would become.

The same worked vice-versa. If I felt like I was affecting someone, I would ask "How are you feeling?" or "Is there anything I can do for you?" Asking people how they feel, made them more open with me, and I made more friends by showing that I genuinely care about how they felt.

Once you're more honest with expressing how you're feeling, the easier it is to solve conflicts or create new ideas. If you just suppress and lie about how you're feeling, you end up living in your own thoughts. You begin to over analyze every little thing that anyone ever does or says to you. There's nothing to achieve or gain. If you're more honest with others, you allow yourself to be more honest with yourself. You are allowing yourself to grow and gain new perspectives.

So when I graduate, and everyone asks me what I learned or gained during my time in college, I have the pleasure of saying, "I learned how to grow, feel, and tell the truth." And I can't help but think to myself, "How amazing is that?"