By 2017 I had done dance for at least 5 years, and the people there still didn’t like me. They never invited me to the parties they had nor did they invite me to the restaurants they went to for fun. The adults said it was because I wasn’t in competition, but I knew it was about the school you went to and the money you had. If I didn’t have Victoria's Secret leggings and a Nike sports bra you were out from the beginning. So I decided to quit, in the middle of the year after we had already paid for costumes and my solo was halfway done. I felt like I had nowhere to belong. But that place was hell for me and everyone believed me, so my mom said yes. Once I quit dance I applied for a job at an after-school daycare and decided to join the spring play. This was and probably is the best decision of my life, I found my family there and I finally got my perfect Angela Chase moment.

Once I got the job I was more tired than I ever was, but the auditions for the play were soon to come. The play was The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe or better known as Narnia.  I was pretty anxious for them, I was thinking of things like “what if I get laughed off of the stage” or “what if I can’t read the lines!” But when I actually got there and there were faces of all of my favorite people, I knew it wasn’t going to be as intense as I had thought. It was so easy and so calm even though I stuttered a bit. After the auditions, a few days later the cast list was posted. I wasn’t on it which just meant that you were a part of the ensemble, but I didn’t know if I wanted to be in the play. My mom told me I should do it anyway, and I’m glad she did. The practices were easy going and were calm. Except for the battle scene, that was pretty intense. And I hated running through It because we ended up going through it multiple times a night, and some nights were dedicated to it.

The week of opening night came way to fast. On that Tuesday was the teacher performance/ dress rehearsal. That went well, but with a few screw ups; so thank god there weren’t more than 10 people in the audience. Opening night was that Thursday, no one could believe it and absolutely no one was prepared for it. Before the show we did our warm-ups, we said “red leather yellow leather” and said “wow” to get us going. And before the show officially started we danced together. The show went great and after we bowed we ran through the aisles. Once we were out of the auditorium we screamed at the top of our lungs because we were so happy. The next night went great also, everyone was really tired after the show. But before we could go home we had strike which was basically just a term for getting everything in the prop room. I really wanted to get home, so I grabbed my things and tossed in the prop room.

The final night was Saturday and it was an emotional one. Once everyone got into their makeup and costume, we had warm-ups. During them, Maddy, our stage director, pulled me aside and asked me If I wanted to be stage director next year. I instantly started crying and said yes! Being the stage director is a big deal, you’re the “stage mom”. I asked her why she chose me and she said that I was helpful. I knew I was helpful, a lot of people have told me that, but I have never really got anything for it. I took someone’s science notes for the first quarter of the year because they’re arm was broken but I never got anything for it. I didn’t really expect it and I didn’t expect that I would get anything for putting stuff away and just helping out. After she told me the great news we did this thing where we got all the seniors in the middle of a circle and played “You Raise Me Up”. The least I can say is it was traumatizing! Everyone was crying hysterically; my friend Emma said “There's a puddle of tears at my feet! I’m just gonna wipe those away”. You could see everyone's makeup coming off and that was bad because the woodland creatures had lots of paint on their face. But the seniors had a really hard time because it was their last show and they were happy even though they were sad. Maddy was crying so hard it was like she was at a funeral. It was depressing, but what made me feel worse was that I got reminded that I have to go through 3 years of theatre The show went smoothly and it was over way too soon. We did bows and they introduced me as the new stage manager and that’s when the waterworks came. People then received their letter for their letter jacket and our director, Tania, gave her speech, we ran down the aisles one last time and we screamed louder than we ever did.

When we had the meet and greet, my friend Vienna gave me details on the stage manager. She told me who gets chosen to do it, she also told me you typically have to wait 5 years. It has never been offered to a 9th grader that has also acted. I was very shocked by all of this and I was so happy. When everyone was taking off their costumes in the locker room,  they said I was a blessing. I don’t think anyone has said that to me.  It stuck with me; I felt loved. In that theater group, we let go of our differences and rea family. When we did auditions my friend Kressin said that I was in the theater family because I went to auditions. In the 5 years I was in dance I don’t think anyone said to me that I was in the dance family even though I tried so hard. But now that doesn’t matter now because I have a place where I belong. In the crazy theater family, where everyone has a place. That is how I got my family and my perfect Angela Chase My So-Called Life moment.