As I start the new school year (my sophomore year in high school), feeling like I’m slowly beginning to fit into my own little world, a world I made for myself. I did something that was at the time out of character for me, I enrolled into a class, a class I myself was surprised I was taking. I was taking a step to finally find a way to open up, a way to no longer be the quiet one on the side, I was enrolled in Dramatic Arts, a class that would change me. The previous year, I fell in love with English Literature, when before I had no interest even though years before my Junior High years I would always be reading a book, but somewhere along the way I lost my love for reading. Last year I had an English teacher who ignited my love for reading, and during discussion of whichever book we would be reading, even though I have read the book, I would shy away from participating in the discussion. As the school year came to a close, my teacher who saw so much potential in me, recommended that I should in role in Drama, and after much thought during the summer, I found myself enrolled in the Dramatic Arts.

Drama became the center of my world, loved my sports but Drama was the start of something I never thought I would become or could ever find myself becoming. I was finally able to express myself, and a lot of it was evident in my acting as I used my emotions buried deep within to convey in the words that lingered on the pages of a script to being voiced, a voice that filled the auditorium for all to hear. When I stood upon that stage I felt I have finally found my voice in this world, my world I was creating for myself.

It wasn’t until the end of the semester, and the start of the new school year in Drama I would finally become the actor I described. At the start, I only did humorous parts, always finding something that filled the audience laughter. Of course I finally slightly opened up, knowing that in a way only playing humorous roles, I knew deep down I still hid behind my pain. Until when the final play of the year, the class was to perform a series monologues and one-act plays. I did a one-act play where I played a psychopathic father; the play itself was a farce so my character was played in a humorous over the top manner. Something in me thought came across a monolog that really spoke to me, so I knew I had a strong need to perform the monologue. When I approached my Drama instructor, she was hesitate of allowing me to perform the piece, as she felt it was out of my range but knew what she meant, I have never attempted to perform something so serious. I asked her to trust me, and let me perform the piece and I promise that I able to perform the piece, with hesitation in her voice she agreed to let me perform the monologue.

The night came where I would I would deliver the performance that became the turning point in my acting career, and the start of many great performance where I would bare my soul. I was nervous performing the piece, as it was dear to me, as in a sense it was a close to mirroring my world, not the step my step occurrences, but the thought and feelings that came across those pages. The piece was about a boy who returns home, and finds himself all alone, granted in the monologue it was alone as the house was empty, my life I felt alone in my world. The monologue continues until the final of the monologue itself…

“As I hold the rope in one hand, I step up on the box, tie one end to the beam the other around my neck… as I stood there with one leg on the box and the other off… standing there as prepare to take my final breathe. I kick the box from under me and I just hung there. My sister came home and found me, as she held me up…”

It was the performance of my life; I left it out there, left myself for the whole world to see me for the first time. My teacher was pleasantly pleased with my performance, as I received a standing ovation from the audience. The following week our school newspaper had their reviews on the performance for that night, and it read that the performs were good, and entertaining, at the end of the review it stated “The highlight of the night, giving an unforgettable performs that touch us all, saying that I delivered a powerful monologue that brought the entire auditorium to stand and applause with a well deserved standing ovation…” I finally came to my own, finally belonged in a world I created, a world that was made on my terms. As trivial as it all seemed to those outside my world, that it was only a class, they will never know nor understand that it was the beginning of my world, the beginning of becoming who I am today.