Most people use art to express their minds or feelings, but to me art means something different. I would compare it to a daily habit like speaking or breathing. I just have the skill of being able to sketch something out and wanting to perfect it. By the time I’m done, it’s mostly identical.

My freshman year, I moved from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Arlington, Texas, so I didn’t start school until August 26, the second day of school. I wasn’t able to participate in schedule pick-up or any of the other things most freshman did on the first day, so the counselor selected my electives for me. To graduate, you must have one fine arts credit, but when I was building my schedule, all the art classes were full. This sort of sucked for me because I had to join theatre arts, and I’m not the outgoing type. I am not the type to express my mind and feelings through body language, attitude and words. This was certainly a different way of creating art that I was not very comfortable with.

In the end, taking theatre arts turned out to be a beneficial experience for me. Throughout the year, I was growing as a person and expanding my personality. Even though I didn’t audition for the school-wide plays like Urinetown, I did have a lead role in an in-class play, The King Midas Touch, that I earned a 100 percent on.

This experience helped me realize that leaving your comfort zone can be a great thing. Just because you try something new doesn’t mean you can’t do the things you love. You never know, you may turn out to be a better person.