Student Blog: How the Arts Have Changed My Life

The arts are a universal means of self-expression, encompassing music, acting, and directing. At the age of ten, like many others, I discovered my love for the arts. When I was ten on Netflix, I stumbled upon the 25th-anniversary recording of Phantom of the Opera.

The first time I watched it, of course, I was unsure about what was happening because I was so young, but after watching it a few more times, I finally understood what was going on. For me, what mesmerized me so much as a child was the incredible costumes that they used in the musical and also the music. The music was not like anything I had heard before; it was a different style of music I was frankly not used to, but it sparked my love for musicals and musical theater. This year, I finally had the opportunity to play a musical instrument, which was a milestone event for me. The elementary school I went to gave fifth graders the option to do choir, orchestra, and band. and I was so excited to play an instrument. As a ten-year-old, I desperately wanted to play the drums, but my parents thought the drums would be a far too obnoxious instrument and would disturb our neighbors, so instead I decided to play the saxophone. Playing the saxophone for over eight years now and being in a band has taught me so many life lessons through my journey. Doing band in high school has given me so many amazing friendships and life lessons. Doing band in high school and putting in countless hours of rehearsals and practice time to become better as a band has taught me that teamwork is super important to being successful as a group. The band has also taught me to appreciate music much more because I now understand how hard it is to practice and dedicate time to something you love to do. In my senior year, I decided to come out of my shell when I decided to direct a short play with my best friend, poking fun at fairy tale characters. Directing a short play was so fun because, as a director, I got to make different choices on how the actors would do things or how lines were delivered, and also picking props was very fun. I'm so glad my school theater program allowed students to direct short plays. Seeing an audience react to my hard work as well as the actor's hard work made me feel that you can make a difference in so many ways.

As previously mentioned, at the age of ten, I was first exposed to musical theater; however, as a particularly shy person, I never acted in any school musicals until I was a high school senior and did my school production of Into the Woods. I'm so glad I decided to audition for this musical because I was challenging myself and trying something new that maybe I would not have done before. Going into the woods has made me work on my singing and acting more and has encouraged me further to audition for other theater-related things. The arts have changed my life tremendously, and without the arts, I would not be the person I am. They have taught me to try new things, create, and appreciate music more.