Freshman year, I joined crew. I had never done it before. I actually joined in the fall. I had done sports before in middle school, but nothing really crazy. I did baseball, but I actually came to Pioneer because I heard that Pioneer Theatre Guild was really good. But then I saw crew, and I was like, Hey, that looks fun.

I quit after the fall season junior year. Then senior year, fall, I joined PTG, and it was great. I did SpongeBob. I was a security guard and a sardine, which I loved. Because I used to do theater in middle school, I felt like I was going back to my roots.

Theater was such a contrast with rowing, because when I would get off the water at rowing, I was exhausted and felt like I didn’t have a sense of direction. It just felt like I was just doing it to do it. With theater, even though we would leave at 10pm every day, I was pumped. I was happy, usually after the run throughs and whatever, because it felt like we were improving every day. And there was more momentum in theater, you felt sort of a tangible improvement. It was more fulfilling.

I think it’s not realistic to do both [sports and theater] at the same time. But I would say try it, try everything. I think my main problem was I was scared that I was not gonna be as close with my friends. That was honestly my main reason for staying.

But then I realized, I’m not gonna stop being friends with them. It’s fine, if I want to be friends with them, I’m gonna stay friends, you know? I knew that I liked theater. But, I kind of thought I was untalented. So I didn’t think that would ever really be a thing for me. But, there really is something for everyone. Even if you think you don’t have a chance.

Don’t be scared to try. If you’re scared of losing relationships, that’s holding you back. If you lose relationships because of it, you weren’t supposed to have them, and also, you’ll make new friends in your new activity. I made so many friends in theater.