When I was in seventh grade, my parents took my siblings and me to go watch "Elf the Musical" with my cousins on Christmas Eve. This was my first time seeing a musical on stage, and I just fell in love. When I got to high school, I joined the theater group and did ten different productions in my four years there. I did three plays, three one-act plays, four musicals, and by senior year I was the elected Vice President and was voted "Outstanding Senior." I decided to make performing my career because I want to put myself at the service of others in the best way I can. The performing arts shouldn't be about what we get out of them; it should be about impacting each and every member of our audiences, because without their support we wouldn't have a career. Providing others with entertainment through the gifts I have and hopefully changing them in the process is what I am striving to do with my craft. I am currently enrolled at a performing arts college, and my main goal is to travel anywhere and everywhere. I was born to move, and I will see as much as I can before my time is up. I am working to fine tune my dancing skills so I can become a strong ensemble member and land opportunities in the dance field. I also love to express my voice, and voice acting and voice over work is an avenue that I can see myself going down in the future as well. I am working to become a well-rounded performer so I can secure a successful career while also sharing as many gifts as possible.

When I was a senior in high school, I decided to take a college physics class. I had always loved math and science and excelled in those areas, so it seemed like a good fit for me. In my second semester, we had a big project called a Rube Goldberg Machine. I was in a group with three other guys and our task was to build a twenty-step, self-running contraption that was able to make a sandwich. This was a massive undertaking, and it was going to take us three months to put together. My group decided to make our machine themed around Pixar's "Cars," and it was going to make a BLT, a true American classic. We started off the process strong, but as time went on things got more difficult. We had trouble coming up with new steps, we couldn't get our ideas to work, and we were getting annoyed with each other because we were basically trapping ourselves in our friend's garage for two and a half months. That would take a toll on anybody. Time was running out and we needed to get our act together. One particular day was going especially rough, and we were all feeling the stress. We were fine tuning a part of our machine that we had been having trouble with, which involved a golf ball rolling down and around a Hot Wheels slide. My friend was kneeling under this part of the machine, and I was filming the test run. As the golf ball came down the slide, it rolled of the edge and nailed my friend in the head. He wasn't hurt, but the ball made such a funny sound when it hit him that we all just broke down laughing. That moment of humor changed our mood for the rest of the night, and we became a team of positive problem-solving machines. Throughout the rest of the process, we stayed positive, and when the time came, we got an A on our project. I've realized that comedy exists to help us realize how unserious the world is a lot of the time. As humans we tend to spiral into negativity and overdramatize the stressors in our lives, forgetting that what we choose to get upset about is mostly trivial and silly in hindsight. Comedy is there to bring us out of those daily struggles, and I see that a lot in the performing arts. Yes, dramas are great, but sometimes we just need some good, heartfelt entertainment. Just like the monsters in "Monsters, Inc." learned, laughter is so much stronger than we realize. My theatre directors in high school chose productions that would lift the spirits of our audiences, and I'm really grateful they chose to do that. My freshman year of high school we did the musical "The Pirates of Penzance," and that was the first musical we did after the Covid pandemic. It was so nice to hear so much laughter in the audience after such a dark time in our lives. That is where my love of theatre began, and I went on to do nine more productions in high school. I also did show choir for four years and could write an entire additional essay about that experience if I could. I want to use my theater degree to do anything and everything. I love to travel so touring and cruise ships are my top interests, and further down the line I have interest in becoming a director. I want to bring the joy of performing to as many people as I can.