Participation

I love reading and performing plays. I have read and or performed a ton of plays during my highschool years. Theater is fun and makes me feel alive, though apparently it makes the others in my class feel dead. This year in my English class, it was announced we were going to be reading an old Greek play in my English class. I was super excited, because I had never read something like that before. Since it was a play, my classmates and I had to volunteer to read parts of every class. Someone of my background had no problem with this. However, the rest of the class wasn’t as enthused. I get that not everyone is a theater nerd like me, which is fine. What I don’t understand, is reading to get the class over with really that bad?

Usually I’m not a big fan of English. I can’t imagine who would be. However, during this unit, I couldn’t wait to get to class. I was super excited to keep reading this play. On this particular day of class, no one except for me was volunteering to read a part. Even though I was really excited. Unfornonly, I was the only one who felt this way. At this moment I realized how truly different I was from my classmates. I was the only one who loved or even liked this assignment. The only one who wanted to be there. Even when threatened with a quiz, the kids didn’t budge. The teacher kept trying to get other kids to participate, but it was no use. It was like trying to teach a turtle to speak. This made me super frustrated. Since we were reading the old play, some of the language was different. Which is why reading it allowed and taking notes as a class helped me understand it better. My classmates’ lack of participation was irritating because it also affected me. So, when our teacher gave up and told us we would be reading a chunk on our own and taking a quiz. This made me very upset, but I kept myself calm. It would be no use to rage like a bull over this. This was not a battle I needed to fight. The worst part of the entire situation was how alone I felt in class that day.

I realize that not everyone feels the same way I do. Though it is still frustrating when you’re the only one in the room who feels a certain way. This event won’t taint my love for plays. No matter how much my love for them made me feel alone. I’m passionate about theater, and I like participating. Even if it sets me out of the crowd.

Featured image: “Lady sitting in front of Parthenon on Acropolis, Athens, Greece” by Kristoffer Trolle is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Additional image: “History is no closed book” by zeze57 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.