There once was a girl who lived in a box.
The box, which was of an average size and build, was previously occupied by an oven. The girl, who was considered small for a child of six, was previously owned by her parents. Together, they were the perfect fit, complementing each other in every aspect of the imagination.
When the girl was an award winning news anchor, delivering the breaking stories to her wide-eyed parental audience, the box was her television. When she was a pirate, making daring escapes over the backs of couches and fending off the dreaded sea creature, Madeline the Cat, the box was her ship, standing regal in the sun shining through the windows and filled with the precious gems and jewels that the girl wouldn’t get grounded for stealing. To the girl, the box was an escape, an avenue for living the lives of the characters of the books she so loved to read, a companion in the universe in which only the two were aware.
As the girl rounded the corner into her ninth birthday, a miscalculated dive into the box sent her tumbling to the floor, and the box ripping into pieces. Devastated, the girl searched high and low for a place to recapture the magic once found within the confines of a cardboard wall. It was then that she discovered the wonders of theatre.
There once was a girl who lived on stage.
If you were to ask the girl’s mother, she would say that the girl’s first foray into the dramatic arts was a role as the Baby Jesus in the annual nativity play at church. The girl would disagree, claiming that she wasn’t aware what was happening and, therefore, it doesn’t count. To the girl, the beginning was marked by a role as Gladys in a church production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It was there, surrounded by friends and family, leaping head first over a manger, screaming, “Be not afraid!” at the top of her lungs, that the girl found her new cardboard box. She found that the stage, though much larger, managed to hold the same wonders as her beloved box. She was free to explore, to learn, to Be Not Afraid.
For the next 10 years, nearly every waking moment was devoted to the craft. She abandoned eyesight for a role in a community theatre production of The Miracle Worker, abandoned an active social life for four straight years of high school UIL One Act Play competition and abandoned the laws of hair gravity as Cindy Lou Who in her senior year production of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. When she wasn’t on stage, she was behind the scenes, running lights and sounds and props and coffee to the director. The theatre robbed her of sleep and gave her a purpose.
In her senior year of high school, the girl was presented the opportunity to write and produce a drug awareness program that would be toured around the area. It was in that moment that the girl found a new, infinite box.
There once was a girl who lived through words.
When high school ended, the girl was faced with an evil, overbearing new nemesis: The Future. As words like “degree” and “taxes” and “economy” started filling the girl’s mind, she could feel her beloved box fading into the stacks of books and clothes she was taking to college. She eventually succumbed to the dreams of a steady income, focusing her attention on a degree in advertising and the hopes of a future guarantee.
The girl was stubborn, though, and refused to let go of her imagination. Every spare opening in her schedule was filled with film classes, playwriting classes, creative writing classes, anything she could find that would allow the cardboard box to flow through her pen, creating worlds in between the lines of her paper and eccentric characters in each individual letter. She wrote screenplays and short stories in her spare time. Whereas most students doodled in the margins of their notes in class, she wrote ideas, character profiles and conversations. She found a way to breach the limits of cardboard and closed doors, expanding the box into every aspect of her day.
When asked about her plans for the future, the girl imagines award-winning television shows, her words quoted among groups of friends, her imagination brought to life on screen and stage.
She imagines a world of possibilities, and answers, “I want to be a girl who lives in a box. I want to Be Not Afraid.”
