You have always been there - from the first moment I walked in your doors to audition in elementary school, to middle school when I never believed anyone would accept me, and finally to my senior year when I decided to continue theatre as part of my future. When I felt I wasn't good enough, you were there to put me on stage and give me the confidence to be something great. When I felt alone, you took me in and showed me a true home.

I became the person I am today because of you.

I don't know how one place can hold so much love and acceptance, but you always have. Maybe it's the people; directors, choreographers, techies, actors, musicians, and much more who buzz about you every day and work to bring life to show after show. People used to intimidate me, but even deepest in my phase of social awkwardness, those at the theatre never failed to make me feel not just welcome, but wanted. It was these people who brought me out from behind the facade I clutched tightly to in school. It was them who showed me that there's nothing wrong with being me.

The people who come together to make you great do so much more than put on productions. They share memories and unforgettable feelings on your stage with cast and crew. They know what it feels like to bask under the glow of your lights and have always wanted to share that. That desire to share all you encompass is what has been teaching kids like me life lessons at young ages. It was through these people that I learned how to love with an open heart, listen with open ears, and live with an open mind - there was no judgement allowed when I walked on stage. In the world today so many people put others down; it's their way or the highway. But you taught me that each individual is important. We all have our own story, on stage and off, and that story must be told. I never believed anything about me was important until my fellow thespians showed me otherwise.

Thanks to you these people have come together.

It was you that showed us the best way to express our feelings is by singing them loud enough for the balcony to hear. It was you that picked us up off the ground and showed us how to stand on our own two feet, only to then teach us to dance. It was you who showed countless that there's a safe place in the world for those who weren't dressed in society's uniform. For years you've been taking the misfits and showing them they're not alone. On the contrary, there are millions of us out there - kids who feel music in their bones and can't stand still when it plays - kids who feel better on stage than off, whether they're 7 or 70.

If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be me.

If it weren't for the directors who taught me how to take pieces of every character I portray with me, I never would've gained the confidence to show the world who I am. If it weren't for the choreographers who taught me to lose myself in music, I never would've learned to be comfortable in my own skin. If I weren't for techies and stage managers and crew then I wouldn't have learned to take charge of my life and responsibility for myself (they also taught me to never touch someone else's stuff if I'd like to keep my fingers). If you weren't there I never would've known the joy and love that theatre can bring. I never would've known what it's like to be a part of a group of wonderful and weird and accepting people that I can call family. But most of all, I never would've learned to love and accept me.

You are my home. I owe so much to you for bringing together the most talented and loving people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, because it was them who taught me the greatest lessons in life. My role models are the people who love you just as I do and have shaped the person I am now. The family I found within you is greater than any bond I could've imagined.

And for all of those things and so much more, I just want to say thank you.