Last summer, I decided to participate on the crew of Trumbull Youth Association’s rendition of the play The Little Mermaid (italicize), due to aggressive persuasion from my friend (consider putting less influence on your friend being the deciding factor) . However, aside from him, everyone else there was a stranger.

    I was apprehensive from the start. I did not speak to anybody outside of my small group (of whom you met how? if how isnt relevant to the story consider not mentioning the small group at all), and did not want this to change while preserving through this uncomfortable experience.

However, the nature of being on the crew of a musical meant that we would consistently be paired off into tasks with different people. I would be torn away from the safety net of the one friend I knew well and had to work with complete strangers on a task I was completely ignorant of; I was nervous, to say the least.

    This obligation to work together was one of the best experiences of my life. I talked to people from walks of life I had never spoken to before, which enhanced my ability to compromise and work out solutions in and out of school, and I reaped the benefit of being around an aggregate of people as eclectic as those of theater.

    Above all, the entire group, from cast to crew, felt like one big family. For once in my life, I felt like I worked on something bigger than myself. There is a reason to reach out - I just needed to figure out to who.