Corner of the Sky Kaleigh Anne Ryan

Confident, invested, and aware, I throw my shoulders back and walk to center stage. I breathe deeply and smile menacingly as I channel my character. This has happened before, over fifty times and within twenty-four different stories, I have done this. I walk on stage on this opening night, my last opening night, as Leading Player Number One in Pippin. I would spend the next few hours with Pippin, traveling with him as he tries to find his place in the world, his Corner of the Sky. Under the stress of opening night, I tend to thrive but on this particular opening night, the feeling that I was on top of the world was the strongest it had ever been.

As I walked off stage after a nearly flawless performance, filled with pure emotion as I hugged those that I love, it hit me: what was I doing? I was one month away from move in day at a college with a health studies major, but that had never been my passion. My heart knew that I belonged within the three physical and one imaginary walls that create a theatre. I knew that the day I arrived at the University of Rhode Island, I’d be changing my major from health studies to theatre with a concentration in acting and directing. At the time, I knew that I’d be taking a risk. In a sense, I...