“I now know the true meaning of ‘the show must go on.’”

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That was the first sentence of my Common App essay, written 4 years ago. When my mind wanders, I think about that sentence. Did I really know the true meaning of “the show must go on”? Did I really know what I wanted to do? The answer to both of those questions is no. In high school, to be frank, everyone is naive. You have yet to live alone without your parents, figure out how to read and pay a water bill, or even grocery shop for just yourself. It’s unrealistic to put the pressure on yourself to know exactly what you want to do. I may have gone into college knowing what I wanted to major in but I had no idea what I wanted to do. 

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I was curious. I wanted to absorb as much knowledge as possible while still participating in the activities that I loved. Throughout high school, I mainly acted in both plays and musicals– I also dabbled in directing, costume design, and stage management. There was this outside-of-theatre passion of mine for public relations and planning. I fulfilled that love by participating in local philanthropic organizations in high school and eventually running Instagrams for some of the organizations where I volunteered at/with. When applying to college, I knew I wanted to combine my theatrical passions with my love for curated calendars and Instagrams. 

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I had no idea how to combine my passions. My high school theatre curriculum had educated us on simply what they needed to educate us on: stage management, design, directing, and acting. There was little discussion about how the industry actually operates outside of a classroom, which I was so curious to learn. Being the type of person who was not only curious but severely anxious about my future ahead, I took matters into my own hands: I searched Google for answers on what to do with my life. After hours of deep dives, I had answers to many of the questions I was asking myself. I knew what I wanted to do in college: performing arts management. 

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Performing arts management is as simple as it sounds: it’s the overarching term to covers the management side of the theatre industry. I searched further and found some colleges had performing arts management programs. Being at a school where I couldn’t do exactly what I love was a dealbreaker for me. Out of the 10 schools I applied to, only 2 of them didn’t have a performing arts management major or a synonym for that. 

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Since then, I’ve been at the University of Michigan for almost 3 and a half years now. Michigan allowed me to hone in on exactly what I love. I’ve been able to explore the multi-faced nature of theatre in countless capacities. I’ve held leadership positions in producing, marketing, and more. I’ve held four internships in a wide variety of companies throughout my time here. I even moved to New York– a city completely new to me– for three months to pursue two of those internships. In almost 3 and a half years, my knowledge of the inner workings of the industry has expanded vastly. I’m so grateful to have been able to push myself beyond my comfort zone and continue to be curious throughout college. Now, I can comfortably say the meaning of “the show must go on” changes daily due to curiosity. There is no one definition to the phrase.