Around A Corner

I've acted since grade school, so obviously I've been on a few different stages in my day.

But the transition from Okinawa's to Virginia's stage was massive.

Backstage, they were all preparing to do their pre-show energy-boosting rituals, as all performers do, when I suddenly realized the absence of the Energy Ball routine, the one I'd always done with fellow cast members before every high school show I'd ever performed. Someone just kind of looked at me, said it would create the wrong type of mood for our show, and then they all proceeded to start a different ritual than I was used to.

And like a cannonball right to the gut, the fact that for the first time, I was performing with a different family than my own, struck me full force.

Not gonna lie. Until moving here at least, I hardly ever cry. But my eyes welled up right there and then. 

No matter how comfortable I had become with these kids, they weren't my family. They couldn't be. 

Back in the dressing room, I was trying to sniffle my now freely flowing tears back in when a kind soul entered to give me a hug. He said how supportive everyone still was of me, and how they all would grow to be as close with me as I used to be with my Okinawa family, and it was so, so calming. 

So even though you don't read this, kind soul, thank you.

And then, of course, I went onstage and dominated with everyone like we actors do.

I've officially been adopted into a new family.