To give you a little background, I picked the essay prompt to "describe a place where you feel most content, what you do there, and what it means to you." I picked the Theatre Department, and more specifically, the hallway of lockers that is the entryway to the auditorium area.
This happened there one time. Those are, in fact, life-size dolls.
So, here we are. Laura applies to college and attempts to actually take something seriously, part 1/1:
I'm what most people, including myself, would
refer to as a "Theatre Kid." I've been involved in theatre for
almost my whole school career in some way, shape or form. I am an eight star Honor Thespian and I am
spending my senior year as president of “Rising Stars”, the Carmel High School
drama club, but to me theatre is so much more than my accomplishments. Coming
into Carmel High School is a daunting experience. There are clubs, organizations, and
activities shoved in your face like potato salad at a family reunion. It’s not hard to be confused and
overwhelmed. It’s not hard to be without
a direction. Finding my niche in the
theatre department gave me that. It gave
me the chance to believe in myself more than I ever had before.
There’s a certain hallway in my school where all
the theatre kids converge. You can walk
through the open, airport-like lobby down the slightly slanted wheelchair ramp
into an area of the school obviously much older, where paint chips away to
reveal what used to be a mural. On the
other side of the hallway from this relic of the 1970’s resides a strip of lockers,
all with similar laminated papers toting achievements taped to their blue facades. Many of these proudly accumulated signs
belong to members of the “Ambassadors” show choir, like myself, and contain
pictures of well-coiffed, bright, enthusiastic individuals in sparkly dresses
and perfectly aligned ties. Even more
announce that the locker belongs to a “GKOM”, or Greyhound Kick-Off Mentor -
upperclassmen in charge of making freshman at the school of over 4,500 feel
welcome. Though none of the lockers,
much like their well-rounded inhabitants, are exactly alike, they almost all have
one thing in common – a small, rectangular sign that says “This Locker Belongs
To…” followed by the name and role of the student decorated carefully in Magic
Marker for whatever the most recent play or musical might have been.
The owners of these locker signs are my friends,
and that little strip of hallway with terrible cell phone service is where I
have discovered I belong. It was in this
piece of hallway that I found out freshman year that I was going to perform on
the auditorium stage. As a sophomore, I
practiced a dance as a rapping reindeer with the other girls in my choir. It’s in this piece of hallway I found out as
a Junior that I didn’t get the lead role in the fall play, and learned in that
way to cope with disappointment. It’s in
that hallway that I now, as a senior with stacks of college mail on my desk at
home, make plans for sushi or gas station slushies with my friends. All of us are past cast mates and all of us
know in the back of our minds that in a few months we may never see each other
together again.
Not only have I found my social circle in the clump
of jumping, hugging weirdos that inhabit this space in the “E Building” within
the entire 265,000 square feet of learning that is Carmel High School, I’ve
found what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m very fortunate to have grown up in a
family that supports me through all of my endeavors, but in the Theatre and
Film Department I found a different kind of family. My support group of teachers and friends has
believed in me through whatever I’ve done, though sometimes I haven’t quite
lived up to expectation. However, with the
combined support of my “house” family and my “hallway” family, I’ve learned
that it’s alright to mess up; you just have to keep going. Because of the little strip of hallway where
my friends conglomerate, I have the confidence to continue with the lessons and
passions all those locker signs represent.
Stuff like this also happens in the Theatre Department.
No comments:
Post a Comment