“I had to move to Florida and drop all of my friends in Connecticut, which was really hard. And I think moving here has really taught me that even the biggest change doesn’t mean you’re going to die, even if it feels like you will, you’ll be fine eventually.

I remember walking out of my mom’s car and there’s just this huge for sale sign out on my lawn. I stopped for, like, a good 10 minutes, and I was like, what the hell is going on? And then after I asked my mom, she’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re selling the house’. It was like the coin dropped. And that was it for me. I was sobbing my eyes out for the entire night.

It was really hard. You know? I’d formed these connections with people I’ve known since I was a child. Since I was like, a little bitty child, like, I grew up with these kids. And so it was kind of hard at first. And for like, the first three weeks, I just didn’t admit it to myself. I wouldn’t believe that we were actually moving until things started getting packed up. I mean, it’s always gonna be upsetting. It didn’t hit until like, the day of the move. It was just like I had to leave all these people I’ve known forever. Like these are my closest friends and I remember feeling like I wasn’t ever going to make friends again.

I remember being very depressed and me and my mom were in a really bad state. And I just like I think it just kind of affected me mentally because I felt just useless. And I just remember feeling there’s no point like, I’m stuck in my house 24/7. It’s the same day over and over again. And I remember just like this cycle of just darkness, like there’s nothing to do. I’m just going to give up, you know?

I really would never leave my room. I lost a lot of weight, I lost like 30 pounds, because I wouldn’t eat at all. I would stay in my room all day, I’d wake up at like, 1pm and then go to sleep at like, 4am. I would refuse to talk to anyone, because I would refuse to go out. I thought that if I showed my mom how bad she’s making me feel that she’d move us back. And so I remember for like, a good six months, that’s just how my life was. Just staying in my room. The only good thing about my life was my grades . It was the only thing that I was putting effort into. I remember sometimes, I’d shower and just huge clumps of my hair would fall out.

One day, it kind of just clicked, I can’t live like this forever, but then I also had to deal with this huge scary problem, which was starting high school. The day of the open house, I remember crying, because my anxiety was at an all time high last year, around the beginning of the year and there were so many people. I had gone from never seeing people for so long to all of a sudden being in this tiny gym with just 1000s of kids.

I’d always liked theater and, so, I remember walking by Ms. Gardieff’s room, and seeing the sign for Puffs. And I was like, why not? You know? And so, for me it was really just about seeking interests and realizing that I just had to get over it because I wasn’t going to go back.

When school started, I started just talking to people and like my first friends were Alex and Catarina, because we had theater class together, and I remember just talking to them and from there I just started meeting people.

Theater really solidified a lot of my relationships and now I have a good group of friends, a good group of people I talk to, and I’ve got a boyfriend so that’s cool, too.

In theater when you’re acting, there’s no judgment because everyone’s portraying their own character. So they get to know your character, but then you also kind of, like, are forced to see these people every single day, and you start talking to them. It kind of forces you out of whatever shell you’re living in, having that obligation to everyday just be doing something. Every day was something different. It kind of boosts your mood. It’s really just about like, getting out of the house. I still basically live with these people. I don’t think I’d ever change it for the world.”