Theater Groups Love Drama

I’m 17 and newly in university when I join a volunteer theater group, and at first I think it’s going great. One of the directors even invites me to the regional convention, when it usually takes two or three years to be invited. Then we get there, and I realize that the director brought me along as a scapegoat.

She insists that I overstepped my bounds and invited myself along, she spreads rumors about me, she convinces the rest of the group that she heard me making racist comments, and generally does everything she can to make me miserable. I can’t say anything without coming off as whiny or lying, since I just joined, and she’s been a respected member of the group for years.

I’ve always had social anxiety problems, and coupled with the fact that we’re two states away and I don’t have a way home besides a guy who gave me a ride and now thinks I’m a racist scumbag, it’s a nightmare.

It is halfway through the second day, and things are bad enough that I am contemplating hitchhiking home, no matter what happened, when one of the girls in the group, who I’ve never really talked to before, comes over. She hands me a drink and tells me, “Ignore those jerks. I haven’t heard anything from you other than you being friendly and shy, and I think you’re pretty okay.” She stays close to me through the rest of the weekend and makes sure I have a way to get home, and she is pretty much the only reason I got through that convention.

We both left the group soon after, for similar reasons, and my life improved hugely. Eight years later, she’s still one of my best friends. She’s getting married soon, and I’m making the wedding dresses for both her and her wife, and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them. I don’t know if she realizes she may have saved my life that weekend, but I’m delighted to have the chance to do something in return for her.