Student Blog: Student Blog: Saying Goodbye to High School: One Last Bow

As the last couple weeks of high school finish up, I have found myself doing all of the rites of passage that I have seen my friends before me do: commitment day, prom, grad night, awards ceremonies, senior beach day and more. But for the theatre kids, more important than prom and grad night, the main event is the Drama Club’s end of the year banquet.

Last week, our Drama Club’s theatre banquet was my last. Surrounded by friends, parents, and alumni, banquet is a time when all the theatre kids come together to reflect on the past year and say goodbye to the seniors. We get all dressed up, the incoming 8th graders, this year including my little brother Josh, come to see what they're getting into, we eat dinner, give out awards and there’s usually an impromptu dance party. I have spent years watching my older friends sing their senior solos then take their senior bows.  The senior solo is milestone where each graduating student sings a song that encapsulates their time in the Agoura High School theatre department. For three years, these were emotional nights for me realizing that my friends were leaving.  But now it was me who was saying goodbye, and it was a bittersweet feeling I wasn’t expecting.

Watching my best friends say goodbye through song was an emotional experience to say the least. I watched (and sob) as Shira sang “Count on Me” playing her ukulele, Emey doing “The Best Day” singing directly to her mom, and my Best Friend Ashley performing “Always Starting Over.” For my senior solo, I chose “A Change in Me” from “Beauty and the Beast.”  When I was ten, I got the chance to perform alongside Susan Egan when she revived her role as Belle in one of my first regional performances, and hearing her sing “For now, I love the world I see. No change of heart, a change in me” sincerely moved me. These lyrics encapsulate my high school journey and how even though I will be moving 2,827 miles away from my theatre community, they will always be in my heart. 

Lately, I have been doing a lot of looking back on these four transformative years, realizing how much I have grown and changed.  I have become the big sister to so many young theatre kids in my community, carrying on the camaraderie that my theatre big sisters previously gave me. It has also given me the confidence to be my own biggest fan. I never got the lead in high school, but still found ways to be creative, whether it be performing, volunteering with the elementary and middle school theatre departments, interning with costumers in my community, or finding a new love for directing and choreography. More than anything, it has given me trust that the work that I love to do, while fun and flashy, can also be inspiring and impactful.

These next few weeks will be a crazy busy time with so many senior events: graduation, more beach days, summer parties, graduation trips, summer theater jobs, and starting to say goodbyes. But I know it’s not really goodbye since these people and moments will be with me forever.

I’m where and who I want to be, no change of heart, a change in me