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It's over.

I kid you not when I tell you that I thought this would never happen, or that it WOULD happen but not as spectacular as I thought it would be. 

This might come off as a rant post at first, but I become nicer and reminisce more at the end. I'm sorry but I had to vent frustrations before showing love.  

When the seniors told us about this project 3 months ago, I was so excited. I fell in love with the plot and thought of everything happening in my head and I was so excited. For once, I didn't want to act, I wanted to make the props because I wanted to help transform the stage to those places the seniors described. 

The week of the production was crazy but I have to say: That week was the week most people bonded. I started talking to people I have never talked to before, and learnt how to work with them and whatnot. There were quite a few changes being made, and so many things to do and it was chaotic but then I started to see everything come together and every ounce of doubt in me started to go away. I begin to feel more and more excited for the 30-31st of August to come because I wanted people to come and watch and see how much effort everyone put in.  

There were quite a few arguments here and there, and a lot of times where people were unhappy and it became hard to work with each other but when it came to rehearsals (like, actual proper get-ready-to-work-it moments), we were all so ready and cooperating and it just made my heart soar watching all of us set our differences aside to ensure that we could just do our goddamn job as good as we could. 

Shit, as I'm typing this, I can't help but start crying because memories. 

I can't tell you how much I've grown from this experience. All the times I felt like giving up because there was so much to do and so little time, and so little people. All the times where I came home so late and my parents got mad at me and I had to explain to them what I was busy with. All the times where I just came home and cried because I really wanted to give up on this and focus on schoolwork but can't help worrying about props. I know that I'm not the worst one out there. 

My seniors all got it so much worse than me and I can't tell you how much I respect them for that. I cannot cannot tell you how much respect I have for them because this shit was hard and this has been such a long and difficult journey, especially for them. 

If you ask me what is the one thing I took away from this project, it's definitely respect. Respect for my seniors, respect for every person out there who does this shit for a living because this shit is hard and I respect you so much for doing this and making theatre goers like me enjoy wonderful productions with wonderful scripts, props, actors and whatnot. Respect for everybody around me because teamwork is hard as shit and learning how to work with people (despite clashing personalities) means having to learn how to respect them first. If you're reading this, I freaking respect you so much because you're actually living life. You actually BOTHER to try to go out everyday and try to lead a life that is just so goddamn hard. 

I can't tell you how amazed I was by everything at the end. How everyone learnt how to work with each other and how smoothly both performances went despite all our worries and fears. 

I can't tell you how hard I prayed for the performances to go smoothly. You may not believe in God, but I do and I really believe that He helped us through all our difficult times throughout the production. 

I can't tell you how unbelievably proud I am that I was a part of this production. There was no help from adults, it was completely student-runned (I mean, like, other than getting teachers to help get stuff for us and book stuff) and everything went so bloody smooth. 

Watching the seniors work so hard on this production has really inspired me. I can't tell you how much my seniors inspire me. They have jobs (most of them), they study and they put in so much for this production. I mean, they even bloody WROTE AND DIRECTED THIS WHOLE THING. I can't tell you how much of an inspiration they all are to me.

If you ever ask me whether I regret going to poly or not, my answer is no. Absolutely not. If I didn't come here, I wouldn't have met this wonderful, inspiring, amazing batch of seniors and I doubt I would become the person I am today. I think through this production, I've learnt so much, and grown so much and I'm ever so grateful. 

Long live Stage 52.