Halloween Was a Thing That Happened

Halloween is tough for all of us theatre students, especially those of us involved in the mainstage show of the fall quarter which is actually a lot of us! This is a bit of a shame considering I think that us theatre students do Halloween best! So of course, we all know Halloween feel on a Tuesday night which meant we all had a dress rehearsal to attend! Instead of missing out on the festivities of dressing up, which we do best, we celebrated the Friday before at the Globe theatre house. Naturally, I went as Stitch and Meleah my best friend, soul sister, right-hand man, and another half went as Lilo! Because Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. And also, because no one else in the theatre or dance department could have pulled it off as well as we did. I’m pretty sure we were the life of the party!

“Does this mean I get to chew the furniture?”

In regards to that quote above, for those of you who don’t know Lilo and Stitch, first of all, watch the dang movie, and second of all Stitch has a thing about tearing things apart, specifically a miniature version of San Francisco. Anywho, I sat on a couch and yelled out “does this mean I get to chew on the furniture?” and everyone busted up laughing and it was the quote of the night. Meleah and I were quite a hit. Man, I love that girl.

Thank You

I have to give you a short story. My grandma and I were talking on the phone one day and she was very excited. She said to me, “You should receive a package soon! I want everyone to know that I am the cool grandma!” and I knew that this box of goodies was going to be a blast to open. And when I picked it up from the post office, the flipflop tissue paper said it all. In case you were wondering what the perfect care packages is from the coolest grandma in town, it is a box of Ellen DeGeneres slippers, marshmallows, uplifting and clever cards, a GIANT bag of caffeinated hot chocolate, and articles for a research project I didn’t have time to research myself! Shout out to the BEST grandma in the world, Mrs. Cheryl Adams!

I Have This Best Friend that I Talk About a LOT.

In case you haven’t figured this out yet, her name is Meleah. Everyone told me that I was going to find my best friend in college, but what I didn’t know is that I would meet my best friend the first week of school my first year of college. It’s been a full year now and I can say that I have never ever had someone like Meleah. Our empathy for one another is plentiful, and I’ve never understood someone so well and been understood so deeply by that same someone at the same time.

This girl’s work ethic is absolutely dumbfounding. Dreaming to be a director and currently acting as a stage manager as a sophomore is pretty unheard of. But of course, Meleah is the one to take on the terrifying and thrilling feat that one experiences as a first time semi-professional stage manager. If there is anything my best friend has, it is grit. She has had to collaborate with impressively cold and hostile people and has presented herself to every situation with grace, wit, understanding, admirable respect, and an incredibly strong and humble spirit. Meleah has the ability to leave everything at the door, and when she’s inside the room and shit hits the fan, she throws the crap out the window before it lands on the prompt book she’s calling over 100’s cues out of. As we all know, my passion for the arts is closely linked to social justice. And if there is one thing I admire and respect about Miss Meleah Roberston, it’s that she will not tolerate being treated unfairly. Yes, she knows she may lose that job. Yes, she knows that she may not get rehired by that person again. Yes, she knows that stories about her will stir. But what she holds true to her heart and what drives her most is a fight for all humans to be treated just as they are. Human. Humans are people that cry, that scream, that gleam with joy, that radiate kindness, that crave connections and make mistakes.

This girl is my rock, and I am hers. We laugh together about stupid squirrels with no tails, we fall asleep together watching the Office because we wanted to watch the clocks fall back at 1am, and we cry to each other when we don’t want a single soul in this universe to find out we are breaking into a pile of dust. The closer we get to one another, the faster time flies, the more spontaneous our adventures get, and the more we learn how to take care of ourselves. We are our raw selves together and we stand with each other as we throw tantrums, get angry when we know we shouldn’t, and say things we know aren’t true. But what we know most is that sometimes, a person has to feel like they can mess up and still be unconditionally loved. This girl has her ringer on at night just for me and I have her coffee order and the exact amount of change needed to buy the largest size. She will drop everything she is doing to make sure I am okay, and she will refuse to let me feel alone and isolated. We tell each other what we need to hear at times when we need to face reality, and we finish each other’s sentences when we don’t have the strength to finish them.

Meleah, you are exceptional. You are unlike anyone else. You are strong. You are the one who finds my foundational bricks that are made out of the sand, pulls them out, and holds me up as you find the stone that has the perfect fit. I truly don’t know what I would do without you. My dear Meleah, if you hold onto what you know is true, you are going to follow a path you didn’t know was there, but it is a path that is better than you ever could have thought possible. I am so exceptionally proud of you and cannot wait to watch where you fly to.