Sometimes you can't appreciate something until it's over. And sometimes you might need to suffer through something in order to understand how much you truly love it. I have always been told this, but it has not been until recently that I have truly believed it. I always thought that was just something people said to help people through the rough spots of life. But I can honestly say that after this weekend, I believe that some of the most crazy/stressful/upsetting/overall hard things we have to do can be blessings in disguises.

This past weekend, I was lucky to have run across one of these blessings in disguise. For the last month or two, I have been working with the beginner's musical theater class as they got ready to put on their production of The Music Man. The show was made up of mostly underclassmen with the exception of some of the upperclassmen boys, which we added in due to the heavily uneven ratio of boys to girls in the cast. I helped out and was the choreographer for this show which started out as "an exciting challenge." What made this challenging was not the fact that I had to choreograph (that was easy because it was simple choreography and a style I'm very familiar with), but that I did not like the show in particular.

Now of course I wasn't going to back out, but this small little detail made something I normally find fun seem like a taxing job. I had no problem with the cast or crew, the show just did not spark my interest the way others have. As tech week came, the stress built. While everything was slowing coming together, I found it hard to stay positive and uplifting. I found myself dreading that I was at rehearsal because when I would go there, I was just stressed. I was stressed, my director was stressed, and the cast was stressed, but that wasn't going to stop the show from happening.

Opening night comes and goes, and it was a great performance by the cast and I was happy for them and all, but I was counting down the shows until it was over. Two more shows come and go, only one left. It wasn't until this last show that I had realized the impact this show had on me.

I was watching the show from the back row with my friend who was in charge of hair and makeup. We had sat in these same seats during the other three show, but what made this time different was the overwhelming feeling of love and pride I had for my little babies on the stage. Watching their excited faces as they performed each number for the last time made me realize that I had done my job right. It was right then and there that I realized why I choreograph. I had put up with so much stress and crazy during the extent of the rehearsals, but seeing my peers up on stage full of pure happiness made it all worth it.

I was beyond proud of The Music Man cast this weekend, and I would like to properly thank you for all you have done and given to me. That is why you are all my blessing in disguise.