Just kinda need to vent

Ebony.....Theatre is a wonderful and sometimes mysterious place! Theatre helped me change my entire personality and has had a huge impact on my life. I think it can do the same for you! I was so shy in elementary/junior high/high school that I always walked around looking at the ground. If I didn't look up, I wouldn't actually see people, if I didn't see people, I wouldn't have to talk to them! I was an outstanding student, graduating at the top of my high school class, but I was so shy that I just couldn't carry on a conversation with someone unless they were my very closest friends and even then they had to start the conversation! When I went to college I had decided that I would change my personality, that I would become outgoing and that I would talk to people as I really didn't like being so shy. I figured that no one would know me so I could just start all over being a different person. When I checked into my dormitory there were two boys from my high school graduating class! Two very popular boys who knew the old, shy me and I was absolutely terrified! I just couldn't do it with those two guys there! I had signed up for a beginning drama class as one of my electives that first semester at college and immediately liked the teacher and the class. As the class went on and we had to perform small parts with other students on stage, I found that I really liked acting...even though I was a serious beginner. After several weeks looking forward to the drama class every Monday-Wednesday-Friday I came to understand that the biggest reason I liked the drama class so much was that when I was on the stage performing a part, I wasn't being me...I was being someone else! To me that was a really huge revelation! I started to understand that instead of always being so shy, I could just imagine that I was on stage and that I was performing as a different person...NOT ME! Suddenly all of the shyness went away because it wasn't the shy me that was there, it was someone else who wasn't shy at all!! The two guys from my high school actually came to me one day and asked me what had happened...how had I suddenly changed so much! To me, that was such a big encouragement! That these two guys could actually see the difference between the me of high school and the me of college (after about a month of college). In 2018 my high school graduating class had out 50th graduation anniversary. Because I'm a serious techie, I prepared three videos for the celebration, one showing our photos from our senior year yearbook, another that showed news from our senior year and another that showed fashions and music from our senior year. I was running those videos and talking to classmates when several of my classmates came up to me to talk and asked me what had happened to me since we graduated that caused such a huge change in my personality! They still remembered the old shy me! So my point here is that theatre can help you in so many ways to develop your personality. It can help you to strengthen your communication skills, to be able to talk to people, to be comfortable in groups (that used to terrify me!) and so much more! As far as being LGBTQ friendly...theatre is probably the single most LGBTQ accepting department on just about every college campus in America! The theatre/drama department is where I met so many people who became my very best friends...some of whom are still my friends today! I met my first boyfriend there. I'm sure that you will be able to share you pronouns and that there won't be any real problem with them. I realize that you aren't going to college yet, but I don't think that what you are going to experience will be much different. Drama/theatre folks are very special people...and you are going to be one of them!
.....David