During your senior year, a lot of people will tell you with this stupid smile on their faces:
“Trust me. I know you want to graduate now but you need to buckle down.”
And during your senior year, when a lot of people tell you this, you will want to hit them.
Now, I didn’t have that full of a spring break (binge-watching the new Netflix series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” twice)–but even so, come Monday night when the reality of school was dawning on me, I was going through a massive existential depression.
I, like the rest of the entire Darlington bubble, did not want to sit through another two-and-a-half-months of school. And so I dragged myself out of bed on Tuesday morning, communed with the smoothie blender, and entered school with that two-and-a-half-month weight on my shoulders. And it hurt.
Further into the day, during my free period, I decided to go walk around in this awesome spring weather. Seeing the sun shining on the lake for the first time in forever, my phone buzzed and when I checked my messages, I saw the Countdown app reminding me of May 16th. It hit me that I would be graduating in two months. Literally, at the time I’m writing this post, we have 58 days until this senior class walks across the stage. That’s not much. That’s less than one really good throw in a game of darts.
And so, to offer my solution to this two-month funk, I ask that you follow me on another tangent:
During the last night of “Once Upon A Mattress,” between all the crying and me wailing on stage (I had the flu–I promise I’m usually a more gracious wailer), someone turned to me and said, “This isn’t the last show for the year. We still have your show to do–that’s the only reason I’m not lying down on the floor dying.”
Now, if you readers weren’t aware, the Darlington Players are putting on a show this Spring–a show that I wrote and am directing. But back at this time, before my friend made this comment, I was incredibly on the fence. Putting on a show is hard and stressful, let alone the rap-musical I had written for the spring (yes, you read that correctly). This would be a heavy task, especially amidst all of the I-just-want-to-graduate feelings that the rest of the semester would hold.
But, on the other hand, not only would my theater family have the rest of the semester to just kind of drift into their next echelons of high school, but I would be depressed as well if we ended the theater season without reaching our full potential.
Cut to me–spring break, 4 a.m., my bedroom–writing rap lyrics that melded Nicki Minaj and Anne Sexton verses.
Yeah.
“9 Mile” is now scheduled to hit the Black Box Theatre the weekend of May 1.
My point being, I now look forward to the next two months–the final two months–of my high school career because I have this big, daunting, challenging, but overall rewarding project to work on. I’m going to be involved with a lot of people; something my introverted side definitely needs in order to stay afloat. Also, theater is awesome. Everyone should do it.
So I encourage you, fellow seniors, teachers, and students, to find something to take your mind out of the burnt-out place that it might be in, and make something out of the last semester–the last semester of many Darlington experiences for the Class of 2015. Come audition for theater. Go be a water boy for the girls' lacrosse team. Help Gboyega drop one last mixtape before he graduates (“Screech: The Return of Screech?”)
Find something to make this last stretch something you’ll be proud of.
It’s okay to be afraid to leave a mark on the school. It’s okay to be afraid to let it leave a mark on you. Just don’t let that fear stop you from doing something awesome.
