Art in Life by Michelle

Art in Life by Michelle - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

It was late on the evening of March 25, 2016. I was on a big yellow bus with a bunch of crying teenagers. The crying was justified. We had just lost our District One-Act Play contest when we were so confident that we were going to advance. Killeen High School's theatre program, The Roo Players, hasn't advanced past the district-level contest in a few decades, and it is quite possible that we have never advanced that far. We thought that would change that night, but it didn't. We left as losers.
We were all confused on how we had lost. We saw the other plays in the contest, but they didn't seem nearly as good as ours. We worked so hard on our production. As the stage manager, I felt that I had left everyone down. I hadn't done anything wrong, but being stage manager comes with responsibilities. Running to the bathroom to get tissues for the entire cast when we were waiting for our critique was one of those responsibilities. When one of the three judges of the contest, our critic, came to us, we were prepared for the worse. However, she had nothing but good things to say about our show. So, we sat on the bus even more confused than when they hadn't called our name to advance to the next level of the contest.
We wanted answers. So, amidst all the tears, our newest director stood up (on the moving bus, I might add). Ms. Salter was always honest with us, and tonight was no different. She explained that one of the judges didn't like our show. She ranked us last, which brought the overall rank down to 6th out of 7. Apparently, we weren't "dedicated to our characters". We almost started a riot, but she calmed us down.
"What you put on tonight was a piece of art. You know, and I know, that this was a beautiful piece of art. But, as you also know, some people don't understand art. That judge didn't understand our art, and that's okay. Because not everyone will. That doesn't mean we lost. Do not go home and call yourselves losers, because we're not. We put on art, and that was just one person's opinion. Some people just don't understand art."
That seems like a pretty powerful message in itself, but to me, it was so much more. In my mind, I drew a connection between art and life. Not everyone will understand the decisions I make in life, but that doesn't mean that the choice is wrong. Some people don't understand why I'm putting myself through a two-year college program while in high school, even though the credits won't transfer to my dream university, but that's okay. That doesn't mean my choice is wrong. No one can understand my life better than me. No one can understand my art better than me. No one can understand our art better than us.