Success Story

SUCCESS STORY:

My success story, like my failure story, has a name. We’ll call this one “Ryan. It’s nice to spend some time thinking of successes from this past year, especially since there are so many negative problems to dwell on. While my successes may seem minor in comparison to my lengthy litany of failures, this one in particular I would say is rather large.

I knew of Ryan before I ever was introduced formally. Ryan has a commanding presence, a large guy with his mini-dreads sticking out like a tamer version of Coolio. He always seems to be in the middle of things, good things, and is involved in nearly every aspect of out school extra-curriculars (except for sports). Most of all, however, I knew Ryan as the kid who took the trash out at lunch. In a chaotic cafeteria where most students leave their trays behind, throw them in the trash with their garbage, or stack them in precarious towers, it is rare to see someone going out of their way to help the lunch workers. Every day, I would see Ryan dragging full garbage bins out the back door and emptying them into the large dumpsters found there, before dragging and bagging the empty trash cans back inside. Nobody really thanked him, in fact, a lot of the kids would make condescending comments to him because of his good will. So you can see why I was glad to see him come walking into my room late in the fall one afternoon.

It started off as curiosity, I think. He said hello to other students in the room, then eventually introduced himself to me. Somewhere in the midst of the pleasantries, he mentioned that he was really interested in acting but that there wasn’t really any opportunity for it around here that he knew of. Without thinking, I offered to talk to him more about his options and he agreed to come after school (his mother was a health teacher, so he was after every day anyway). That afternoon, I learned that while not a great student academically (B’s, some C’s), he has a ton of talent theatrically. He told me stories with flamboyant gestures and laughed with me through impersonations of students and staff at our school. He has a ton of charisma and great energy. I encouraged him to pursue acting in college, being a senior and starting that whole process, and he said he planned on it. So we sat down at the computer and started researching schools with good theater programs.

Over the next week or two, Ryan and I put together quite a list, contacted schools and began filling out applications. There was one in particular that he really got a good feeling about; AMDA (American Music and Dramatic Arts Academy) in New York City. We spent a lot of time on his essays, probably a week of after school sessions and more time than he claims to have ever worked on one thing at a time before, then began looking for short monologues to perform for his live audition component of the application which would take place a few months later in Nashville, TN. While I was struggling to get any of my students in class to come after school for help with work that would decide whether they passed or failed my class, Ryan came willingly every day to rehearse. I felt like a teacher for the first time, he ate up my feedback and advice to eagerly. He listened, and applied. In class, I may get students to sit and stare quietly, but it’s rare that I see anything retained. Ryan let nothing go and, while he was already a great actor, I saw his mastery of the selected monologues grow and grow. When it came time for the audition, I took him around town and made him perform impromptu at local businesses for patrons and workers alike to get a feel for acting in front of strangers.

And he nailed it; for them, and for the school audition. A few weeks later, he was accepted and elated to be heading to New York City next year. Since then, I have seen Ryan get all kinds of attention from the school and community. He instantly became popular when people learned of his post-grad plans, largely due to a wonderfully written newspaper article on him that ran multiple pages and was posted in the library and the front hall by the main office. He deserved it also, more than most. I began helping him research and apply for scholarships, several of which he received. It was incredible to see his excitement, and sometimes apprehension of course, to do what very few, if any, from his community had done before. In addition, this spring Ryan has helped backstage at a local community theater which is running a play soon that I’ll be performing in. He has not only learned very much from an incredibly knowledgeable and experienced cast and crew, but broken racial barriers by becoming involved in what is traditionally referred to as “the white theater”. I have watched his confidence blossom, and cannot wait to hear how he fares in the Northeast this fall.

So, while there were more than a few students that I allowed to slip through the cracks, I believe I was largely responsible for helping at least one student up through the rafters. If he succeeds in this pursuit, which I strongly believe he will, he can do so much for his community and those that will follow behind. It does make me feel good to know that he may not have had the courage, the vision or the motivation to reach this dream of his if I hadn’t helped him. Though I am always quick to point out that he found me, and I just answered his questions. He is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with hard work, belief in yourself and someone else to believe in you as well.