If you've ever been in a performance of any kind, you know that the worst part of any production is the inevitable post-show depression. You get so pumped to finally have a little free time when your show is over that you forget how much it totally sucks to not have every waking moment of your life filled with rehearsals.

I'm willing to bet almost all performers have felt a little bit of this feeling at one point or another. If not, let me show you how it goes in the best way I know how: musical theatre gifs.

At first, you revel in your newfound freedom...

You walk outside and see the sun for the first time in months. It's bright, but you can handle it. The birds are chirping and you breathe in the wonderful fresh air. You know the moment is fleeting, but you enjoy it nonetheless.

...but then you realize free time is kind of weird.

Dear god, what do I do now? I've watched every episode I've missed in the last three months or so of my life, and now I'm bored. I could do school work, but where's the fun in that?

You start to get kind of lonely.

Your theatre friends, despite driving you somewhat crazy, really become like a second family. But now you're all doing non-musical things without each other, and it stinks.

You go through performance withdrawals.

The stage really becomes like another home to you, and not being able to be on it for an extended period of time, for lack of a better word, sucks. You miss being able to be someone other than yourself, and it really starts to get to you.

Also, a little stardom never hurt anyone-- right? Those 15 seconds of fame went way too fast.

Now you have no excuse to slack on other important things.

Sorry, Professor... I accidentally, uh, set my school work on fire. My bad!

But seriously, having to put on a show takes so much of your effort that you can use it as an excuse to slack off in school, work and other areas (to some extent). Now that it's all over, you have to go back to real life and do not fun, real work. Gross.

Reality is not nearly as much fun as your show was.

In my most recent show, I got to be a nurse, a stewardess and a prostitute-- why would I ever want to go back to my humdrum life as a plain old college student? Sure, it's nice some days, but most of the time I wish I could live in that alternate reality where people sing about their problems.

Life really couldn't be better than that.