Challenge 14: Recognition

36. Select any issue that is of importance to you and discuss your views. (New College of University of South Florida)

With increasing competition for colleges, jobs, or popularity in the world, people want to be more recognized by others at some point or the other in their lives. I, too, wanted to be recognized by people at one point of my school life when I was in 7^th grade.

There was a musical, Sleeping Beauty, to be presented in our school for the school festival show. I somehow became the music director of the show since I’ve had experiences in music and drama; I was asked to direct all the music parts of the show including the songs sung by different characters and the cues for when which dance should begin. I remember that I was really excited in helping out the show as a music director. However, it wasn’t as interested and exciting as I thought it would be. It was a very hard job; students were not extremely good in singing nor acting as this show was a first time experience to them, and once I realized that I’ll be not on stage the whole show but will be playing piano beside the show the whole time, I was really discouraged to do my best. Yet, I found small improvements in my friends’ works everyday. Slowly, they learnt how to move and act according to the cues, their voices produced much better sounds for songs, and on top of everything, they enjoyed their practice sessions. Their attitude towards the production changed my mind. What if no one recognized me from the audience? I wanted this production to be a real good one.

So I did try to do my best with heart and soul really put into the production. And it did pay me off on the day of the show. We had more than a thousand people as our audience. Of course, the main casts got the most applause. Perhaps, the audience wasn’t even aware that an eighth grader was sitting and playing the piano for the music beside the stage. But the casts recognized me in front of that thousand people by calling me onto the stage at the end of the show; they screamed out my name and clapped so loudly that I thought I was in the middle of rain and thunder.

Walking a path without any initial popularity is hard. But sometimes, I think that’s how you earn respect and recognition.