A Full Circle Moment

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

This past week, I traveled to Indiana to serve as an adjudicator for the International Thespian High School Competition. It was a real full-circle moment for me.

When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to be recognized at the Florida State Thespian Festival, and that experience gave me the courage to become an actor.

So, to have the opportunity to give that gift back to current high school students meant a great deal to me.

Mostly, I found myself sharing an exercise I learned from the great writer and fellow NYU professor, Ocean Vuong.

Perhaps you and I can do it together now.

I told them, "Go back to the person who first found this art. The person who saw a piece of theater, or whatever first lit you on fire when you were young, and said, 'I want to do that.' The person who decided they wanted to create something that could transform and affect people's lives in the same way.

"What you need to do is say thank you to that person. And you need to say that every day because no one else is going to say it for you on this journey."

Together, we all closed our eyes, and with a breath in, we said, "Thank you."

A POEM

“Thank You” by Ross Gay

If you find yourself half naked
and barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing,
again, the earth's great, sonorous moan that says
you are the air of the now and gone, that says
all you love will turn to dust,
and will meet you there, do not
raise your fist. Do not raise
your small voice against it. And do not
take cover. Instead, curl your toes
into the grass, watch the cloud
ascending from your lips. Walk
through the garden's dormant splendor.
Say only, thank you.
Thank you.

Grateful,

Michael