To say that only one person inspired me in my life would be the understatement of the decade. Many people go through life with only one inspirational person that they always look up to. I have had the privilege of having twenty-nine people inspire me all at once in a way that no one else could. In the 2008-2009 school year, I was informed by a friend of an audition for the first production of Rent at the Orlando Youth Theater. Right away I jumped to this opportunity to be in this world renowned musical. To be in a musical like this, which represents the struggles friends go through in a “measure of a year”, was a blessing in itself. Going into it, I thought, “Here I am, auditioning for one of the most impactful shows of my time, and to be performing this with all these people who share the same love as I do is going to be a great experience.” What I did not know was that the people I would meet would change who I was completely.
At the first day of rehearsals, everyone was getting to know each other, remembering names, forgetting them a minute later, becoming “best friends” right away with some people, and rounding off into cliques already. At first, we all came into the show excited to be a part of this amazing production of Rent. Who would not want to be a part of something as incredible as this? We all knew the lyrics to every song and could recite the musical forewords and backwards completely unaware of the words we were singing or saying and how they would affect us in the end. Like all theatrical productions, the start is always the rockiest. We all had our quarrels with each other, which of course caused many problems.
As we continued, the problems seemed to slowly disappear. During the rehearsal process, we became family all because of one person’s experience. Kailee Brooks was the one person who truly knew what this show was about. Without her, I do not think any of us would know the real meaning of love, family, and friends.
The week of the..