When I was a sophomore, I got cut from volleyball. After making the team freshman year, I had stopped doing my other activities. Trying out for the second year I was so excited for the coming season. However, after making it through those tiresome three days I was cut from the team.

At first, I was sad that I could not participate and I was unsure what step to take next. This door had abruptly closed and left me on the outside of the sport I had dropped everything for.

But eventually, I would come to see this as a blessing in disguise.

I began to look for new opportunities and school activities. I decided to go out on a limb and try out for the fall play- the day before auditions. Expecting to be cut with the other 75% of the kids that tried out, I didn’t even look at the cast list. It was only when a friend told me that I found out that I had made it, and I’ve been involved in the Nashoba theater program ever since.

By joining drama I found some of my best friends in high school and made some of my best memories. From going through the audition process, to engaging in the week-long intensive that is tech week – it is so much fun. In my Junior year, I got my first lead role for a Nashoba show in, “Noises Off”! I was so excited, not only did I get to work with a great cast, but I got my first choice role and was featured in almost the entire show. This was an amazing opportunity and gave me the most wonderful challenge. Just a year after I was cut from volleyball, landing this role helped me realize how happy I was with how everything turned out.

Through drama I met some upperclassmen who participated in an elective called “Journalism 2”. In this class, I heard that students wrote stories and produced the weekly video broadcasts. As fate would have it, I had room for this class in my schedule. After joining, I fell in love with the class. It granted creative freedom to the writer and a live-stream-rush to the broadcaster. I loved getting involved in what was happening in the school, community, and world. I ended up continuing journalism in my junior and senior years. Journalism also inspired my interest in majoring in communications/political science. Without meeting those kids in drama that pulled me into the journalism world, things may have turned out very different.

In retrospect, being cut from volleyball was not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new one. I wish that I had understood this the day I was cut.

Volleyball was great for a time, but looking back I see that it would have held me back from things that fit my interests a little better. In a world full of opportunity there are so many things to get involved with. My advice to all that are cut from something, whether this is from sports, the arts, or even not getting hired for a job is this: Everything happens for a reason and to have faith in the idea that better things are to come! Take that rejection and turn that into something that simply helped you guide you through life. Rejection is not always a bad thing, although it stings at the time, chances are it is for the best and will make you a better person. When one door closes, another one opens…