Graduation Speech: The Wiz

"Attention! Attention! All Students. Are you singer, actor, dancer or all of the above and feel like it's time that you get your big break well you’re in luck. Next week Thursday we will be holding auditions for our very own school musical of "The Wiz". So bring out your talent and ease on down the road to auditions." Is all I heard Monday morning on the PSA system. Maybe it's not such a bad idea I thought. As a child I've always had a passion to be on stage either singing, dancing and acting or doing all 3. But I never executed it because I was too scared and let my fears get the best of me. It's always the same phase. We have a school play, I think about doing it and just as fast as that thought came it left. But this time it felt different.
When I told them that I was going to audition for a role in our school play they looked at me like I was crazy. But when I told them I was going to try out for the lead role in our school play they nearly passed out. They all began shouting questions at me like "Are you sure you want to audition? What made you change your mind?" Are you going crazy? I simply answered " We can’t run away from our fears forever. I feel like we all should audition for a role in the play and face our fears." At first they all denied and said no with no vacillation. But I wasn’t giving up that easy. It took a lot of persuading to do but eventually they gave in. I was so excited that they agreed. I got to planning a practice schedule because in order to ace this audition we needed a lot of practice. We needed training. I set up the practice for Friday – Sunday. I was helping each of my friends with the song or dance they chose to do and they were helping me with my audition piece. I helped them with notes and dance moves. Despite that I had to audition as well, it was really important to me that my friends did good. I was proud of my friends. They were stepping out of their boxes and facing the fears that has been blocking them. We were practicing day and night making sure that we all have the best audition piece our high school has ever seen. There was no holding
A small voice in my head kept repeating “Just go home and save the humiliation. You’re not going to get the part anyway”. I pushed that thought to the side because it was too late turn back now. I was like a leader figure to my friends if I turn back now my friends would turn back as well and I couldn’t do that after all the hard work we put in. So backing out wasn’t an alternative at this point. This was more than just auditioning for a role in a school play, it was an achievement that we would remember for as long as we live. What basically started it all. So I put my fear to the side and went into the audition room. Two weeks later call back was placed on the board. I was so excited to say I GOT THE PART AS DORTHY!! Cynthia got the part as the Wicked Witch of the West, Akayla got the part as Good Witch of the North, and Latisha got the part as the lead dancer. We were all excited. All the hard work that we did paid off. The most important part is that we faced our fears and in the end the outcome we received was phenomenal. After the production of The Wiz, my performance encouraged people who were once shy like me to step out of their box and face their fears. My fear was only in my mind. Fear is temporary but regret last