I’m sitting in the 1960’s style cushioned seats of my high school auditorium as I watch the curtains part. I’m a freshman, attending my school’s spring musical, “Pippin.” I don’t know it yet, but the next 2 hours will end up putting me on a path that changes my life.
The beginning piano chords ring out and the audience around me fades as “Magic to Do” begins.
Front and center is a girl with dark hair, dressed in black, her face lit up by the spotlight. She looks confident, her voice is perfect, and I think she puts a spell on the entire audience. Or maybe it’s just me.
For some reason, I feel connected to this girl. I know I’ve never met or even seen her before. She goes to my school of course, but I’m a freshman and I think she must be a senior. She has that “senior look” about her. Mature, confident, with one foot in high school and one foot out the door. She’s basically everything I’m not at the moment.
No, I know I have never seen her before. Plus, it’s not like I’m a part of the musical theater crowd. Really, I’m not part of any crowd. I don’t have interests, aside from reading books. I don’t really do anything. But as this girl sings out on stage, I feel myself being compelled to “join them”, as the lyrics say in the song. To sing on stage.
To be just like her.
Inspired
The musical ends. “Magic to Do” plays over in over in my head. I sing the lines to myself when I get home, hearing how the melody sits on my voice. It feels right. I am stuck on the girl who just performed (her name is Amy – which I uncovered in the program) and my now newly found passion to be in our school’s next musical.
This sounds like the start of a stalker relationship, but it wasn’t. I didn’t cut out magazine letters and paste together notes for her. I was simply inspired. Inspired to try out for our school’s musicals. To sing in front of a crowd like Amy did, despite how scary that idea sounded.
After my freshman year and seeing Amy perform, my life changes. I started to find myself. To figure out what I liked to do and who I wanted to be. I tried out for musicals and got to sing on stage. I joined groups, became part of a web of friends, I made a name for myself. I became a part of things and was no longer alone.
But, despite all these discoveries, that’s not the real impact seeing Amy sing on stage had on my life. Some of that “figuring out who I am” stuff is a normal part of high school. Being inspired by her didn’t lead me to go on to perform on Broadway, despite my half-way decent singing voice. My musical career was like a firework – up, poof, ahhhh, done.
No, Amy didn’t really alter my life because of her performance on stage. She ended up altering my life because of her job.
Get a Job
A few months go by. I’m now a sophomore. I’m walking past the deli counter at our local grocery store, and I happen to look over. Behind the case of Dietz and Watson meats and cheeses, I see Amy.
In full stalker mode, I say to myself, “I should get a job here.”
My mind has already been thinking about getting a paying job. I want the independence money gives you. Seeing Amy there in her green apron inspires me again. She works here, so it’s probably a good place. And so, I get a job at the same store.
We never really interact. She’s in the deli and I end up being a cashier. And I am fine with us barely ever speaking two words to each other. I am not a stalker, after all. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Amy had a bigger purpose in my life. A few months after I begin my career behind the register, I end up meeting the person I was supposed to meet by following Amy.
My Bagger
I’m working at the register, wearing my own green apron, and in walks this boy, a new bagger that was just hired. He’s cocky, skinny, and confident. He’s got big blue eyes that have a hungry look to them. He looks familiar…but I know he doesn’t go to my school. Something about him makes my heart beat too fast. I immediately don’t like him.
This boy doesn’t seem to share the immediate dislike I felt. In fact, the opposite. Like my dislike for him is a magnet that pulls him closer. He tries to get me to smile. He makes me laugh. He’s persistent. This boy, who doesn’t go to my school, who I would have never met had I not worked at this grocery store, is my husband.
Had I not seen the musical Pippin at my school, not been enraptured by Amy and tried to mimic her life, I would have likely never met this boy. We would have lived our lives in parallel paths, never intersecting. I think about this fact now, some 20 years later, and wonder where I would be? How would my life have played out had I not seen Amy? If I had not went to see Pippin that night and been inspired, what would my life look like today?
It’s quite crazy to think about how little moments and decisions direct the course of your life. Little moments lead to bigger things. How one person can affect another, without even knowing it. Amy has no idea the impact she’s had on my life. I didn’t realize it until years later. How she inspired me to be in musicals which gave me countless memories and experiences I still treasure today. Inspired me to join in the game of life and be a part of something. And she inspired me to get a job at the place I end up meeting my husband at. The man that has had one of the biggest impacts on my life. Making me a mother and helping me become a stronger woman.
I joined the cast on stage because Amy inspired me to. To be a part of something magical. And I was. Both on stage and off.
Thank you Amy 🙏🏼