I have always had a love for art. My family sometimes brings up funny stories about me at the dinner table and they all mention me drawing pictures on the walls, singing and dancing to Umbrella by Rihanna, drumming against every surface that I could find, or even putting on one person shows with my stuffed animals as the audience. For the past 8 years, I have done band and theatre together. It has been difficult trying to balance both but I still love the two activities. The last two years of my high school career are when I really made my decision. What hit the nail in the coffin was when I could only participate in one of the four class performances for the production of OurTown. My band director wouldn’t let me and the other students miss any of the football games and competitions. Due to this some of my friends have left theatre for band and although it hurts to see my fellow bandmates go, it is also the reason I stayed in both for so long. I wanted to prove that it was possible for someone to do both. For someone to thrive in both their passions. But looking at it now I have realized that I like the chaos band brings me with the packed schedule and long hours on the bus waiting for results. Yes, I do love playing the marching show and playing with the percussion ensemble, but in theatre, I admire the togetherness more. I have that one safe space: the stage. My best memories from last year are opening the school’s musical with my best friends standing on pink and white Delta Nu stairs holding the candles we decorated together. Theatre is the one place I feel that my voice, identity, and ideas can be heard. Even outside of school when I joined a children's theatre company that I had heard people talk about. I remember being so scared and not knowing if I would fit in when I was called back for a role in one of the shows but I was accepted with open arms. I have made some of my closest friends from both school and community theatre. I know that with the scholarship I can go to a college that will hear me and help me embrace and enhance my personality and allow me to shine in ways I believe are possible.

Title: cool lighting with the sunset screen saver on the tv in the living room with large windows and a stone wall the absence of people i think is the problem. but not just people, the right people. its too quiet. i can hear the clicking of the fingerprinted laptop. the ten-mile-per-hour winds. the buzzing of the silence is getting louder. even though i am not alone i feel alone. its too quiet. i can hear the creaking of the floor. my heart in my chest and my shallow breathing. i miss the noise. my brothers, all of them, running around the house no matter how annoying. my stepmother cooking in the kitchen with her new pans. my dad in the “waiting room” playing a decade-old game called civilization or listening to the commentary of a football game. i miss the busyness, the loudness, the laughs, and the smell of home. i feel the most empty when i have none of the things that make me feel whole.