Drama

What is drama? Needless to say there are many various and sundry definitions of this word. For some it is a five-letter curse to be disgusted at and shunned like the bubonic plague at a European Rodent Festival. For others, drama is simply a term for the "events" that take place when two people become bound and determined to undermine the other in the view of all within earshot (this is common in High School). And then, for pretty much everyone else, it is the ability to temporarily shed the troubles of the real world and live for a while in a world entirely of your own creation. I am of this last mentality. Not because of the negative connotation of the prior definitions, but because of the positive connotation of the last. Being the bright ray of sunshine that I am once every other month, it makes me feel much better that I can design a sort of "secondary reality" from which I may derive all sorts of new strengths, new pleasures, new pressures, new pains, and new troubles. Perhaps I dwell too much on the negative. But even in the negative aspects of the S.R. (secondary reality), one finds comfort in facing different challenges, as opposed to doggedly facing the old challenges that have become frustrating and boring to oneself.

I suppose some may view the escaping of one set of troubles to face a whole new set as just about the most foolish thing a human being can achieve. However, I say differently. Facing a new set of challenges is like tackling a football player very much larger than yourself; it all depends on your approach. If you go full on and try to take him down from his chest and helmet, the goliath will simply shunt you off to a side and run you over again and again. But if you take it strategically and lower yourself so that you take him from his knees, you can use your own body weight to throw that behemoth to the ground.

Now, to all you football players out there who may read this by some sick twist of fate, know that I played football officially for a total of three days. I was thoroughly embarassed, but I quickly learned many lessons. The first of which was that I run like a combination of a rhino and a dodo. The second was that there's a muscle in your back that must have been made specifically for letting your brain know that you've taken a blow to your chest, and is responsible for the ten minutes I spent on the ground writhing in pain. The third lesson is the one which I have been unintentionally rambling away from. I shall explain in a short narrative: I was given a blocking assignment, and, to make the story short, I was tackled by a guy that was less than half my size. I braced and expected nothing more than a hardly noticeable pressure somewhere around my shin. To my extreme surprise, and also to the agony of my pride, this little man siezed me around my knees and lifted me completely off of the ground. I weigh 240 pounds. This man couldn't have weighed more than 120. And yet he succeeded in lifting me completely off the ground and dropping me back on the ground on my back behind him. When I asked him later how he managed such an incredible feat, he simply stated "I got under you." Although this statement had now poignant affect on me at the time, I have realized that that is the way to face challenges. Not to attack it recklessly and thoughtlessly, but to think and be rational; get under your troubles and use your own strengths to get rid of them. Don't let them jump on you and take you down.

Now, why was I talking about that? Oh, yes, drama. Forgive my digression. Drama is almost always associated with theatre. I have had better luck in the theatre area than I ever had in the athletics area. Recently I finished performing in a play at my school. It was none other than Disney's "Beauty & the Beast." I've been told that at my school we do amazing shows. I've been in theatre for three years. I honestly can't tell if we do amazing shows. Not because I'm ignorant, but because I just don't notice. (Which may or may not be the same thing.) I played Maurice, a crazy genius inventor father. A very different character than most; old yet childish, small yet fiery, brilliant but thoughtless. This was a wonderful chance for me to shed my normal self and assume the role of someone very different than myself.

To tie this random bit of information to the original intent of the opening passages, theatre is a wonderful passage to relief from your trouble and strife. During Beauty and the Beast I fell behind in classwork and became thoroughly stressed. But every time I stepped onto that stage, I forgot my problems. I believe that we can learn to get under our problems, lift them into the air, and slam them on the ground behind us, even if they are more than twice our size.