Dear Theater,

I know we haven't spoken in a while but I just want to acknowledge all you did for me and now that I am almost finished with
freshman year of college, I thought I should say thank you. I would like to say thank you. Thank you for giving me a
place where it is okay to wear black three nights in a row and the only acceptable place to scream Harry Potter
Puppet Pals ticking time bomb rap while twerking viciously. Thank you for allowing me to explore my sexuality and
"find myself". Thank you for giving me an excuse to stay out until 9 maybe 10 for the cue to cues, leaving me up until 1 am doing homework. Thank you for giving me honest friends, people who will listen to me rant about stupid shit and cheer me on,
people who have the ability to look at me from across the room and automatically know I'm dying on the inside, people
who will make fun of me out of love and not hate. Thank you for giving me a reason to see boys and girls half naked and coveredin tape. Thank you for my Telex. Thank you for dinner breaks that bridge the gap between actors and crew. Thank
you for providing an ear whenever I needed. Thank you for giving me a show about a talking, singing, human-eating plant.
The story of bringing someone back the dead, Beauty meeting and saving the Beast, unfortunately, a trippy show about a
little girl taking drugs from strangers, Peter and his star catching, Frankenstein, business and success, and Wednesday
and her messed up family.

Thank you for giving me weird friends. Thank you for giving me a home away from home. Thank you for comforting me.
Thank you for distracting me and getting me out of my house the day my depression was so bad I relapsed and thank you for giving me friends who knew I was not okay but instead of asking rhetorical questions they sat in a circle around me and
brought bubbling laughs out of me. Thank you for allowing me to see the good in High School because in all honesty, it was harder than it looked.

Thank you for letting me be myself and surrounding me with people who don't give a damn about how much I eat, or the
way I dance, or the music I listen to, or the fact that I hate sports and refuse to play, or that I don't work out. Thank you
for giving me iconic games or would you rather in the boys dressing room. Thank you for pre-show rituals. Thank you for last show screams. Thank you for first show jitters. Lastly, thank you for being you and bringing people from different groups
together to create a community. Going to college and having to figure out how to live a life that doesn't consist of tech week
and script readings, made me realize that I am a theater kid and there is no place like the balcony with the rest of
the sound crew, messing around while the show below us goes from words on a page to actions on a stage. There's just something about being apart of something so beautiful, so inclusive, so irreplaceable. So to all of my current high school
seniors in their second semester. Hold onto theater, remember it. It doesn't have to be left in High School. Those memories
you have might just be the reason why you laugh on a day where crying and sleeping were the only things you could do.
With that being said: Thank you theater, I miss you, and I love you.

From,

an awkward outsider finding where she belongs.