I've been involved in theater, particularly technical theater, since high school but through much of my early life is was an extracurricular, something you did outside of your studies or your "real" job. It was only after spending almost all of my free time in college backstage and in scene shops (while taking a non-theater degree), and taking time away from jobs in different fields in order to work in theater that I came to the realization that it was what I should and could have been pursuing from the beginning. Working in education gives me the opportunity to reach students at an early point in their lives and show them the value, meaning, and fun that theater can bring to their lives. It won't always lead to a career in theater as it did for me. When it does, it gives them the opportunity to put their efforts into what they love and go much further. As for the rest, my goal is that they come away from the experience able to look at theater, and the world, through another lens.