Student Blog: Making the Most of My Last Act of High School

As a senior in high school who is anxiously awaiting the beginning of her BFA musical theater journey, I'm trying to savor every last moment of high school. While I'm looking forward to the next couple of months: my last spring musical, senior events, prom, and graduation, I'm sure you can imagine how I have mixed emotions because so much is going to happen over the next six months. In the fall, I am going to be a freshman at Marymount Manhattan College on the Upper East Side of New York City (very far from my home state of California)! I will be getting my BFA in musical theater, with minors in directing and politics/human rights. 

While leaving my friends, family, and tight-knit community will be challenging, I have been preparing to follow my dreams since sophomore year. As the daughter of a tiger mom, I'm sure you can imagine how anxious my family has been these past 4 years knowing how hard it is to get into a BFA musical theater program at a 4-year university. Since freshman year, my mom, college counselors, and I have been curating college lists, my repertoire for auditions, and keeping my grades up. 

One thing that I think gave me a leg up in my college auditions was the summer programs that I attended. The summer before my junior year, I was fortunate enough to go to the Open Jar Institute, a week-long musical theatre intensive camp at Open Jar Studios in New York City. Getting this first taste of being without my parents, meeting new people who had the same passion as I do, and focusing on singing, acting, and dancing all day solidified that this is what I want my college experience to be. As I was narrowing down my college list during my junior year where Marymount Manhattan was one of my top choices, I auditioned for and got the opportunity to be a Marymount Manhattan student for 2 weeks last summer.  Living in their dorms, learning from their incredible staff, and living the life of a BFA student solidified Marymount Manhattan as my top choice. 

After that summer intensive, my foot was on the gas and it was time to get a move on my college audition process. From working with college counselors, voice coaches, acting coaches, and dance teachers, I spent countless hours focused on my college auditions. From writing a thousand college essays for the Common App, to deciding between a million takes of the same song in my pre-screens on Acceptd, to traveling to a few of my top picks for in-person auditions, I ended up getting accepted to Marymount Manhattan’s BFA musical theater program mid-December.

However, my priority right now is savoring the last 5 months of high school. We are currently in rehearsals for our spring musical, “42nd Street.” All that dancing has been very tiring but fun - tapping my booty off every day with my best friends. I have also just finished my senior passion project: directing “The Diary of Anne Frank.” As a young, optimistic, and loud Jewish girl, Anne has always felt like a peer to me, so being able to tell her story with the community I love was overwhelmingly special.  This show was completely student-run and we made a replica of the annex in our black box theater with historically accurate props and costumes.  It transformed into an honest and poignant story that touched our audiences and the local Jewish community. 

I'm trying to get my head around leaving our tight-knit community and the theater family that I spend so much time with - whether it’s a Starbucks run before rehearsal, doing homework in the dressing room, or spending hours on FaceTime picking audition songs and outfits. It's hard to fathom all of the big events that are coming up this year: my senior prom, my high school graduation, and our theatre banquet with senior solos and bows.  So before moving across the country for this very exciting, but overwhelming year, I’m going to do my best to remember every laugh, every hug, every actors’ circle, and every mandatory Starbucks medicine ball.  I’m going to take it all in.