I know what you’re all thinking. Don’t start with this sappy BS. But I can’t help it!! As I’m sitting with all my best friends on the bus for my last overnight competition in show choir, I’m feeling a little nostalgic. 

As “Gone, Gone, Gone” by Phillip Phillips plays on the speakers (give it a listen while you read this, it’ll set the mood), I can’t believe this year is coming to an end.

I want to use this blog to just ponder on all things that have happened, and are happening in high school. So many things are going on, and my outlook on this year has changed so much. I started out with a mindset of “this is stupid, senior year is overrated.” Now, here I am, in airband, the senior variety show, assassins, and senior board. I’m your run-of-the-mill NNHS husky senior!

Airband

Trying out for airband was – simply put – terrifying. We had barely prepared and had nothing going for us…except for our friendship. Finishing the audition, the judges told us how connected we were, and we were so hyped. 

We all met up afterwards and waited for the results, and when I tell you that everyone cried, I mean EVERYONE. As we group-hugged and took silly timer-selfies, I realized that my high school dream came true. I was going to perform onstage with 2,000 people watching.

Assassins

First off, Meg Sparacino, if you’re reading this – I know you’re coming after me for assassins, and I refuse to let it happen.

Assassins is strange. It’s honestly way too stressful for me and I feel very paranoid 24/7. Although it has brought me a lot of laughs. My friend Mikayla pretended to have me for assassins to prank me. She legit parked outside of my house for nearly an HOUR after my rehearsal. She blocked my driveway and I had to chase her away…so committed to the prank!

Overall, assassins is absolutely terrifying. Lauren Sun, I hope you see this and know how stressed I was seeing you every day in class knowing you had me for assassins. Now I can’t focus EVER because I barely know who has me!

(If anyone has info on my assassin please lmk)

Senior Variety Show

For some odd reason, I feel that only the most “senior” of seniors emcee some sort of event. You always see those popular kids up onstage cracking funny jokes. I am not one of those people. Despite that, me and three other of my dweeby friends auditioned to emcee the senior variety show (surprise, surprise…we were the only ones to audition). As I’m currently writing my script for it, I realized how unfunny I am, but that’s for another day.

Theatre

NNHS Theatre has been a large part of my life for the past four years. My first show was this awful production called “Breaking News.” By no means was it bad because of the school or directing or anything like that. It was genuinely just not a good script. Little old Erin was so thrilled to have just 14 lines on that stage (yes I do remember how many lines I had).

When I think about my growth throughout my time in theatre, it feels almost surreal. Freshman year I barely auditioned, while sophomore I got cut from a show, which came as a shock when it occurred. After being at callbacks for 6 hours for the freshman-sophomore show, I received a cast list without my name on it.

Fast forward to Senior year. I directed the same show I got cut from (the Freshman-Sophomore play) and I got a pretty large role in Romeo & Juliet — Lady Capulet represent!! I also attended my first Theatrefest, which was an experience and a half that I might get to in another blog. 😉

The growth I see from freshman to senior year is not one of acting skills. I had the same skills I had freshman year (I never really took acting classes or anything). My growth came directly from my confidence. I auditioned for each show this year with nothing but CONFIDENCE. I owned those stages and it showed!!

Theatre has had such a large impact on my friends and community. Those are the people who I am most comfortable with, and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

Show Choir

Now that I’ve arrived at the hotel for our final overnight show choir competition, I’m feeling a little strange. Some huge part of my life is almost gone, and I’m not really sure what to do about it. 

Looking back on these four years, the confidence I’ve gained from these competitions is absolutely insane. I now can strut down 4 rows of risers and hit a pose with absolutely NO hesitation. If freshman year Erin in the back row saw me now, she wouldn’t believe it.

Goodbyes

Sorry for the sappiest little blog ever, I hope it brought everyone some joy. I’d love to hear some of your favorite senior year moments as of now, or any memories from these four years.

The time is now for us to graduate and move on, so make sure you’re enjoying every second of it. Even if you have an entire semester project to do before it ends. 🙂

As I prepare for my next competition with Entourage, (It’s at North $20 for an all-day pass, shameless plug, February 15th) I wanted to reflect on my previous competition in the sparkling land of Omaha, Nebraska. 

As I packed for this exciting and unreal experience, I began to worry. What was I going to wear? What if I didn’t know the dances? Or even worse, what if the competition doesn’t have good food????

As I quickly fell into a downward spiral of worry, I decided to procrastinate packing until as late as humanly possible. I went on with my week carefree, avoiding my impending doom.

As Thursday quickly approached, I made sure to finish my homework all the way through Monday’s assignments, as I knew I’d have no time to complete it otherwise. When Thursday had finally arrived, I was beyond excited.

I showed up to our dress rehearsal, ready to go with my trusty hair-tie and a new pair of tights. As I squeezed into my corset for our opening, I felt the nerves of everyone building up. We all had so much left to do! It was already 6 pm on Thursday night, 12 hours before the bus left for North, and I hadn’t packed or curled my hair!

After we had a smooth few run-throughs of our show with costumes and the combo (shoutout to the Hot Brockets, y’all amaze me), I was ready to lie in bed and sleep. That was until I realized I had hours worth of packing to do.

I rushed home in a frenzy and curled my hair as fast as humanly possible, and got to work. The number of things to pack had increased dramatically from previous years because we were staying an extra day. As I shoved clothes and makeup and my conditioner into a tiny duffel bag, I looked at myself and thought: “that is very much adequate.”

As I finished preparing myself for the long trip ahead, I settled down for bed at 2:30 am, ready for a long winter’s nap. Suddenly, my alarm starts beeping and it’s 4:00 am…Time to get up! I hopped in the shower, drove to get some Dunkin’, and dragged myself into the building.

As we all lugged our bags onto the bus, the energy really kicked in. Although the trip was long, it was jam-packed with joy. At the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa, and then spent the rest of the day munching on Culver’s and singing show tunes.

As we arrived in Omaha, we enjoyed a night of BRUTAL rehearsals, we finally got to the hotel, and with that, a night of silly dancing and eating Pringles.

Waking up on Saturday, I had accumulated about 4 hours of sleep in 2 ½ days. Despite my sleep deprivation, I was nothing but ready to take on Millard West. We drove to the school and spent the morning cheering on High Heeled Harmony and eating Panda Express (thank god for good food). Soon enough, it was time to take the stage. In my…unique…costume, I strutted down the hallways to warmups.

As we all held hands and sang our ballad together, we knew we were ready to perform. We took the stage, and for 15 minutes I felt the happiness that I had missed for so long. We performed our asses off and had the rest of the day to watch groups and have fun. Or so I thought.

As I walked off the stage, I felt AWFUL. Legit so sick and gross. I sat through the critique we had but spent the rest of the day nauseous and ill. As the finalists were announced and Entourage was one of them, everyone was so thrilled. Although all I wanted to do was perform, I didn’t think it was humanly possible. 

I sat and basically cried for two hours, so upset and angry with my body, I felt like it

was rejecting me. I called my mom crying, and she dragged me to the nurse in the school. I kept yelling that they wouldn’t let me perform, but my mom was having NONE of it. She sat me down and as they took my temperature, a shroud of worry clouded the nurse’s face.

“102.3”

WHAT??? Absolutely not. I started sobbing. There was no way that I was going to miss a performance my last year in show choir. Unfortunately, mother knows best, and she made me pack up my bags, give some air hugs goodbye (couldn’t risk whatever awful illness I had spreading to others), and was on my way.

Although I did get to watch the performance through Facetime, I definitely am still heartbroken over my loss of a performance. Despite that, I now realize how much I have to cherish all of my other performances.

With all this being said, it’s our senior year! So, what better way to spend your Saturday than coming on down to Clash of the Sequins on February 15th at North and enjoy my final year of show choir with me!! See y’all there!

(Also I don’t have Coronavirus, it was just strep sorry for the clickbait).