All The Good Post Titles Are Taken

I'm adding to the spam of posts. Sorry, but I've been meaning to write this for awhile because everyone has some touching story about their experience so here's mine. (If you get bored halfway through, here's a fun game: try to guess who I am while reading this and you'll find out at the end.)

I remember signing up for improv because I like singing and acting but I was just never quite good enough for all the official performances. I'm one of the few people in improv who's never been in a Dillingham show before (except for 1 triennial in 5th grade but they couldn't cut me from that so it doesn't really count), and I decided to choose that as my elective because it sounded super cool. So I signed up! It was super fun and I really liked the people in my class. (I don't think any of you guys were actually in my class because I was in a completely different team from you guys. That was a HUGE HINT as to who I am.)

So when Mr. Wagenseller emailed us about the improv club, I was all for it. I wanted to just see what was up and see if it would be as fun as the class. Yeah, I was one of the few people there when it was after school on a Thursday. I actually cancelled my piano lesson just to come. So dedicated, am I right?

Then improv became a huge part of my life. You see, 7th grade wasn't exactly the best year for me. I lost a lot of things - friends, elections, competitions, and pretty much anything else I tried. Lots of tears were shed that year. I had to grow a thicker skin and I had to learn to be more mature and get over things a lot easier. I had to learn to not assume that everything would work out, and sometimes I'd have to fix it myself. I learned a lot in 7th grade from all of the hard stuff I went through. But even if you grow from a hard time and it ends up being good, you still have to have a respite from all the bad stuff. And improv club was that for me. I knew everyone would laugh with me, and it was the one thing that I literally couldn't lose at. I learned to fail gloriously - if you lose, lose gloriously. I learned to live without regrets. If you do something bad, if you regret something, you know what? It's just life. It's just something small that you probably won't even remember. So you gotta go out with a bang. If you're losing horribly anyways, why not make it the most bangin' failure that anyone has ever seen ever? Yeah, I lost VP. Yeah, I didn't make it to Damon Speech Finals. So what? I gave it my all. I failed. But I did it gloriously. And I learned that mindset from improv. (If you don't know who I am by now you're either in the class of 2018 or you should get to know me better.)

I also didn't really felt like I was good enough to hang out with the "musical theatre kids." I thought it was like an elite clique and you had to make it into musicals to hang out with them. But when I got to know you guys through improv, it really made me realize that you guys are just like normal people. And that made me realize that there are lots of other people who are also just like normal people. EVERYONE IS JUST A NORMAL PERSON!!! That was almost as good of a revelation as YOLO.

In 8th grade, I had grown a lot and I was changed for the better. I was more confident, but it almost made me grow away from improv. I felt like there was a while that I never really participated and I wasn't that into it. I was kind of intimidated and shocked by all of the new 7th graders that were suddenly dominating the stage. Maybe they weren't always the best, but there were just so many of them that I didn't know. Slowly we all grew to be a family, and then towards the end of the year I truly felt close to all of you. (I think it was after we established the troupe.) We became a family. A bread-hollowing, crazy, loving, teasing, mocking, and sometimes just really stupid family. But a family. We've added and dropped members over the years, but that doesn't change the fact that we're all a family. Maybe some members are on the other side of the world. Maybe just on the other side of campus. But we're still a family.

I couldn't be happier to be going into Academy with (at least part) of the improv fam by my side. I'm so proud of all of you, and myself. I really hope we can make this improv Academy thing work. Maybe we can even add some older kids, expanding the improv family.

I think improv is amazing for everyone. I think everyone should do improv at one point. And maybe - however cheesy this sounds, maybe everyone can join the improv family. We should stop looking for the cure to world peace in bombs and diplomacy - just bring a few Who's Line actors into the UN and everyone will get along. Trust me. And if it doesn't work? Then they'll fail gloriously.

I'm hoping this post wasn't a glorious failure. :)

You guessed it,
Audrey