Standing at 6’4” and weighing 240 pounds I stand in front of the crowd, sweating under the heavy beam of lights, and all eyes are focused on me. On the inside I’m nervous, but I stay cool, calm, and collective as I continue to perform under pressure. Yes, of course I’m talking about acting.
     

Through my first two years of high school I was always known as a jock. The big kid that people mistook for a senior, shorter kids were intimidated by, and football and basketball coaches salivated over. For those two years, I fit the stereotype. I always wore my football jersey on game days and dressed up for away basketball games. I let my size define the type of person I was going to be in high school. I thought I was stuck being a jock because that was how the entire school viewed me. However, that all changed during sophomore year when I had signed up for Theatre 1.
     

I had always known I liked performing on stage since I acted in a couple of plays in middle school. Being able to make audience members experience emotions because of a performance I give is one of the greatest feelings in the world. My theatre teacher gave me the opportunity sophomore year to take part in the school play. Unfortunately because of scheduling difficulties and actors having to drop out of the show, the show had to be cancelled. Even though we were not able to perform it on stage I was able to go through the rehearsal process for about 4 weeks. Experiencing the stress of memorizing lines, blocking the script, and losing a voice for about two days made me realize the love I have for acting.

After that experience I knew that acting was the one thing I wanted to pursue in my life. I quit football, much to the coach’s dismay, and focused solely on theatre and played basketball just for fun. It was then when I learned that my physical appearance does not define who I am.