Feeling intimidated by a group of people can hurt your self-esteem and for a time, Sophia felt like this. She found solace in theatre arts which prompted her to feel like she belonged somewhere. She felt “somewhere” was a different world in which you can make your own rules. Therefore, she became a part of the theatre officially, which accepted Being a part of something can build someone’s persona Sophia, a committed personality at the City College of New York, who aspires to be a professional stage actress in theatre. Ever since she was young, she has always had an active life, whether that meant participating in mime ministry or after-school rehearsals for a play. While examining Sophia’s narrative closely, she provided me with the appreciation she has for the arts, expressing her gratitude towards her soon to be profession. Sophia has encountered the realization that writing is one of her strengths, but she is an excellent public speaker and knows how to capture the moment through her words and actions.
Sophia’s approach to writing would be considered conventional but, in a way, to capture her artistic thoughts and views that she so gracefully used to describe her challenges. In her essay, “Who are you? Who am I?”, she uses sensible and encouraging language that captures her need to be seen and her ability to reflect how her challenges helped her grow.
At the onset of her essay, Sophia took a more realistic approach and describes that her journey started with a simple question that turned into a multifaceted curation of elements. She stated, “you know your name, your birthday, and you see yourself in the mirror every day” and “but to truly know yourself” which explained that she knew herself, while having a sense of being safe and secure, but she wants to embrace the complexity that finding oneself came with. This rhetorical strategy helps the reader ruminate about the endless possibilities that could result from finding themselves while teaching them what to look for when they start to soul search.
Further on in her narrative, Sophia specifies the challenges of her journey as an artist by sharing a short anecdote about her mother, a devout Christian, putting her in church activities like “mime ministry” and “dance ministry”. While she appreciated that her mom kept her active and helped her on her journey to becoming an artist there was one event that really helped her develop her love for theatre. She described it with candor and excitement, using words like “immensely” and “eleven”. It expressed that going to the Usdan summer camp adjusted how she views the arts and she attended for 11 consecutive summers to expand her knowledge of the arts and skills within the arts.
During the reading of her narrative, it was revealed that Sophia communicated the themes of individuality and discovery while showcasing being neurodivergent which became an important factor towards her finding her identity. The phrases “neurodivergent black girl” and “the fruit loop in a cheerio”, expressed that she belonged in the spotlight and her differences will make her shine even more. She felt it was “nearly impossible” to withstand all of the commentary that she was receiving but she still continued her journey and realized that she wasn’t meant to be a follower.
Sophia started to discover more about theatre and the arts by focusing on people who made a career out of the arts. “When things seem challenging, always remember your why”, these are the words that Misty Copeland said in an interview that inspired Sophia to cogitate about her art and how she makes an impact on others. She uses the phrases, “makes them forget their own personal issues”, “opens people’s hearts”, and “truly believe”, which calls forth her readers to believe that her art form becomes an “escape” for Sophia’s audience. Her audience, as we can infer, are people that need a “mental escape”, an escape that causes them to live life through the stage and her actions. Sophia mentions that she feels her art and audience is “rewarding”.
Ending off her reflection, Sophia reminisces about her younger self having difficulties with English, specifically, reading. She saw the task as punishment but she never disliked the writing and thinking portion of English. According to Sophia, English “allows you to have your own interpretation and revolves around storytelling”, this explains how she valued that English shared a few of the same objectives as theatre causing her to grow fonder of what’s to come in the English subject overall. She expressed that her teachers were African-American which helped her to see that the media is wrong about African-Americans being uneducated. She was able to become inspired by her teacher’s knowledge and able to say her own opinions without being criticized or ridiculed. She brought her audience along for her artistic journey teaching them that challenges always come when finding oneself, but always remember why you started in the first place, so that transition can become easier.
In this enthusiastic author profile, Sophia has grown her simple hobby of being in school plays to it becoming a career that she is pursuing by attending City college and shooting for Broadway. She shows promise in her passion for theatrical art which proves that she has made exemplary progress in her literacy and creative thinking skills. She wrote to reflect on her literacy and creative thinking skills, to influence her audience to learn the lessons she presented throughout her narrative.
Unfortunately, Sophia and I couldn’t find the right time to give her an interview but I thoroughly enjoyed her piece and hope to see more come from her. She will achieve many things and I hope that she realizes she is a good influence to many neurodivergent Black women that want to make a career out the arts. When she becomes successful in her career, I advise that she should do interviews and tours around the world to educate other young neurodivergent black girls about the trials and tribulations they may face when in the arts industry and how to combat it. She will remind little girls around the world to be strong and that in the arts you are loved.
