Growing up I made myself a defense mechanism to protect myself from the things I hated the most. Humiliation and disappointment. But, around fifth grade I realized I couldn’t live with this eminent fear of failure. After all, you can’t avoid it in the real world. So, I shook it off, put on my big girl pants and decided to audition for the school musical. There were only two issues with this. I couldn’t sing, and I may have been the most uncoordinated child to ever live. Nevertheless, I started practicing my “vocal skills” with my red haired dreadlocked flute teacher from the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I figured while I was at it I should audition for a female lead. I’ll admit I was so excited, so excited I may have been telling all the kids in the halls of PS.29 that I was going to star in Disco Knights. You can imagine my disappointment when I was cast as Robert. As a ten year old who wasn’t accustomed to failure, there was a temper tantrum and a melt down and many tears. So yes I played a boy, actually he was the chess team captain and I got to wear a nifty checkered hat with a quirky button down and bell bottoms and trust me, I rocked it. And to this day, whenever I listen to my personal favorite from the soundtrack, Friday Night Fever, I remember how happy I was playing Robert. He wasn’t my ideal choice, but I tried and I learned to fail, and I got out of my comfort zone and this prepared me for all of the disappointing and humiliating moments I now embrace.
