Fireflies

I've been trying to figure out how to post about Wizard of Oz Strike from Sunday night for about a day now. On a totally unrelated note, I also sign onto iTunes every week and download the free Single of the Week, usually without listening to it. It's free, to why not?

Last week was "Fireflies" by Owl City. I listened to it on the pilates today, and I immediately knew that it would be the perfect basis for a post. Naturally, I've listened to it about twenty times now.



"You would not believe your eyes
if ten million fireflies
lit up the world as I fell asleep.
Cause they fill the open air
and leave teardrops everywhere."

One thing that was true at this Strike as well as the one for Beauty and the Beast was that the Marsee's yard, which is where we have the Strike Party (The Marsees are the presidents of YTHC) is filled with fireflies during the summer. Seriously---there's tons of them, and when it becomes dark and hugging circle starts, people sometimes try and catch them. It'll be completely dark and then, suddenly, a spark of light will briefly appear before fading to black again. Fireflies always remind me of Youth Theatre.

"Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
from ten-thousand lightening bugs
as they try to teach me how to dance."

Hugging circle. With fireflies. And I can't really dance, thanks to my turned-in ankles. Add one and two together and we'll come up with song meaning.

"To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes.
I got misty eyes
as they said farewell."

The end of Strike was, as expected, fairly traumatic, since it does mark the end of that particular season of YTHC. The seniors will move onto college, people will move, and new people come in, but no particular season will be exactly like the one before it or the one afterward. This seems to be the case with most people, though, so I doubt that I'm "weird cause I hate goodbyes." This particular year was hard, having not been in the show and therefore not only not being able to meet some of the new seniors (and non-seniors!) but also not seeing some of my best friends every day like last summer.

It was raining after giving out the Nerd awards, so several people (particularly newbies) went up to the center of the tent we were all sitting under and gave their sort of "Thank the Academy" speeches. I actually went up myself, explaining to the people who didn't know why I had to duck out why I did and thanking everyone for keeping me as part of the YTHC family despite my absence onstage. And yes, I was half-crying at that point.

I'm trying not to look at this as the end of Season 38, but rather the beginning of Season 39 (much as our director would say). It sounds like this will be my last year at Fort Knox and Kentucky, so I'm hoping to make this year the best out of any of what will be the five here. I plan on joining SALUTE!, which is YTHC's touring group during the school year, start taking dance lessons, survive AP, become more social, finish my book, among other things. It's kind of inspired by Chris Crutcher's Deadline, which I haven't read but know the plot of. Look it up---it's a fairly long explanation.

Just to wrap things up, I'd like to say a final thank you to YTHC and everyone involved in it. I love you all so much!