Kali Miller’s strength is something that she acquired after a number of moves and meeting people she didn’t realize at the time would change her for the better. Instead of dealing with the difficulties of constantly moving in unhealthy manners, she found solace in the theater. It was there that she found the confidence and strength she needed to cope.
“If I hadn’t chosen theater as an elective, my whole middle school career would have been completely different, definitely for the worst if you ask me,” Kali said.
In the beginning of Kali’s sixth-grade year at Yukon Middle School, she enrolled in theater, expecting a fine arts credit she needed to get through school. Her anxiety had stopped her from doing things such as dancing or singing in front of people she didn’t know. But as she became more involved, she slowly learned to trust herself and let her guard down every now and then.
“I would be fine, but as soon as I sat down, it would all hit me,” she said. “The black box was my safe place.”
For example, Noah Paul was a student whom she met through the theater program and grew significantly close to during a tough time in her life. Noah taught Kali to be someone who is positive and looks at the glass half full. He taught her how to be continuously positive even when people around her are negative; he has influenced her greatly to this day. He made her feel as if she had a whole other family.
Her frequent moving experiences from Yukon to and from Putnam City shaped who she was because of the diverse people and strong leaders she was constantly surrounded by in those environments. Kali knows that she wouldn’t change a thing about choosing theater because the people she encountered at these schools have forever influenced the way she lives her life and views the world.
“He is part of the reason why I am so happy and so positive,” she said.
By the time she entered her seventh-grade year, the theater department had become her home away from home. It had helped her break out of her shell and challenged her to do things that she never would have done had she not chosen theater as an elective. Her sixth-grade year was the first year the school offered this particular theater program, making its students the original actors. She said she thought the people she had met in that program had become a family. The nostalgic feeling she gets about the theater family she once had has stayed with her as she has moved.
