Life Lessons Woven In by August

Life Lessons Woven In by August - December 2013 Scholarship Essay

In my sophomore and junior years of high school, I was a costumer. Since my school is an arts magnet school, we put on at least three theater productions per year. That means that there are plenty of opportunities to work on costumes. There is surprisingly a lot of thought and work that goes into the costumes. That makes it a very rewarding and interesting experience to have.

When I started high school in freshman year, I aspired to be a fashion designer. It seemed like such a glamorous job. The profession made sense for me, as well. I liked to draw dresses, I liked to sew, and I liked clothes. I was very excited when I found out my school had an apparel program. It felt like a first step to the life that I imagined myself living.

Though I was obsessed with fashion design at that age, I was also fascinated by what went on backstage during shows. It had always seemed like it would be such a fun place to be. When I took apparel in my sophomore year, my teacher told my class that there was going to be a costume meeting for the big spring musical, West Side Story, if anybody was interested. Of course, I wanted to go, but I was hesitant about it. At the time, I did not have good time management skills and I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle my schoolwork and taking French online as well as spending several hours before and after school to work on the costumes. I decided to wait, until someone told me that it could teach me time management skills. So, I jumped into it.

Costuming my first show was an interesting experience for me. I saw the different parts of the school where the costumes were stored and very few people were allowed into. It made me feel special and trusted. I also got to watch rehearsals, which I will never forget. When I was watching the actors in their somewhat unfinished performance, I felt fulfilled. This was what all the work was about. My confidence was higher than ever, so I finally started to make friends at my school with the actors and fellow costumers when I previously had very few.

Junior year came around, as did many more shows. During that year, I was taking a class specifically for costuming. The very first show that we had to work on was The Color Purple, which my school continues to be proud of even though it has been over a year since we first put it on. It became nationally recognized, which made me feel proud as well. However, the difficulties in costuming began to show up more. I ignored it, just thinking that it was just whatever the situation was. Sometimes I didn’t sew something on right or I wasn’t organizing fast enough. Several shows later, Footloose was performed as the big spring musical. At that point, I was starting to doubt my decision to pursue fashion design or costuming as a career. It did not seem so glamorous anymore. I was also falling in love with writing and was considering becoming a screenwriter.

After the last rehearsal for Footloose, the director had everybody gather on stage. I thought, This is what I want. I loved the feeling of unity that I felt with all the other people, even though some of us have never spoken to each other. Then I realized that costuming rewarded me by teaching me what I truly wanted to do. I saw what the career was really like, and I decided that the path wasn’t for me. The unified feeling I could get working on a film set and I could be doing something that I love. Even though I eventually became uninterested in costuming, I think it was the best decision to make. Instead of learning that my love of writing was greater than costuming in college, when I would already have paid tuition and such, I learned it in high school when there was still time to change my mind. Instead of going to a fashion school in New York City or California, I found a great film school that is perfect for me. One of the great parts about it is that it’s only an hour and a half away.