I’m sad to say that a chapter in my life has come to an end.

When I was a kid I always struggled to make friends, which if you know me you might find odd as I am a very social person. I was always afraid of being judged and felt that I wouldn’t fit in because I wasn’t good enough or would get made fun of. My mom would always ask why I would never go up and try and I was always afraid to because I was different. I knew I was different. As I grew I was introduced to community theatre where I started doing musicals and felt like I found my place. But the people didn’t always make me feel like I belonged as they were so toxic and cruel.

I soon made it to high school where I started doing theatre there. It’s the story of how I met my best friend. It’s the story of something so small changed my life. In my sophomore year, I did Les Misérables with my high school and it was an amazing experience.

Flash forward to my senior year and it’s been some time. It’s been 2 years since there’s been a musical as COVID-19 had taken out my junior musical from even happening. Our director and choir director had both left and it was the start of something new. New director, new choir director, and I was skeptical about the whole change. Little did I know it would change my life for the better.

It was a small cast, a small group of people who all learned to care and love each other in a way some people could never know. Something was different with these people than it had been with any other cast. I say I do theatre because I love being on stage. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t do it for the people. This year the people were different. It’s the fact that I felt that I could be myself and not be judged for who I am. I was accepted and it wasn’t a community it was a family. I felt at home. For a while, many of us had felt empty, having nothing, and felt we were missing a part of ourselves. Our new director filled that piece of the puzzle we were missing and everything had felt complete again. I’m not a very emotional person but I can confidently say I bawled my eyes out on closing night. Of course, I was upset it was my last show, but I felt the most sadness being that I had to say goodbye to these people who truly changed my life. These past 4 months I’m grateful for all the friendships, memories, and moments I have made that will be everlasting. The fact that we were judged by others but stuck by each other and never let anyone feel like they were less because the world sees us in a way that’s different from who we are.

On closing night my director told us a story about a boy who grew up knowing he was different and was always reminded he was different and not in the best way. And his “friends” who called themselves that would never want to be associated with him because he was different. As he grew he realized no one cares about me, so why should I care? But was then introduced to this amazing group of people who cared. And he thought to himself, why now? Why all of a sudden do these people care? Why is it any different from the people who have said they “cared” before? We were those people to him. A family.

It’s kind of ironic that a bunch of high school students did a high school musical that was High School Musical. I want to end off saying a few things. First I’ve learned not cry cause its over, but smile cause it happened. I wish the rest of my life could feel just like a High School Musical, and We’re All In This Together.