Rejection

2010! I can't believe it! To think that were entering a new decade is crazy to me. I was born almost twenty years ago. To think of what the next ten years will be about is mind-boggling. I am a very much futuristic person. I look into the future a lot and sometimes forget to realize that I need to be the best I can be in the year I am right now.

Seeing my family was very nice, but now it's back to school. I am in my spring semester of my sophomore year now, and I can definitely say that this past first week of school has been tough, stressful, fun, and new all wrapped into one. These new classes I have are a lot tougher than I expected. There will be a lot of reading and writing involved, two things I'm not particularly fond of, so this will be a challenge. But my goal is to stay on top of things and not fall behind because I want to get at least a 3.0 this semester. Its weird I saying that because I never got anything lower than that in high school. My first three semesters have been between 2.8 and a 3.0; which isn't bad for college. I know that it is still a "B" average and that college is way harder than high school, but for me I know that I can do better. I want to do better. I want to do my best and get on the dean's list. So, I just have to focus more and study, study, study.

This first week back I also have another thing that takes a toll on me every week I get back: Auditions. Being a theatre major, I have to audition for all three of the shows we do a semester and they all take place the first week of each semester, which means you have to be performance-ready before then. As my theatre major goes at TCU, it has been a journey. I always felt that I have to try harder because of my lack of experience and being new to this compared to everyone else who have probably been doing this since they were four or five. After getting out of a small high school where I was the lead in a lot of plays, I'm now at a college where the competition is fierce and I feel like nobody sees me — it's tough.

I have realized that I need to keep working hard and striving to be better in my craft. Last semester I took a class called Acting 2, which was my favorite theatre class by far! It was great, it really changed me and made me a better actor I feel and was so happy because I felt like I needed that. Since "A Chorus Line" I had not been cast since, not in anything, not even in smaller productions. I felt that the department still didn't notice me. So this past winter break when I was preparing for auditions this semester, I would practice hard and use techniques I learned from Acting 2. I felt more prepared and confident. As auditions went along I was very pleased with myself. I had received three callbacks, one for each show, which happens in the middle of the week if they liked your first audition.It was the first time I had been called back for every show so I was very excited. I have learned that making it in callbacks is something you can control; after that, there is nothing you can do, it is all up to the directors or not if they like you. I didn't get cast once again this semester, and I took it pretty hard. I asked myself if there was something wrong with me — My look? Am I good? Is this the right major for me?

But my best friend Josh, also a theatre major, talked to me and said that I am a great actor, I just have to believe that I will get rejected all the time and I have to realize that in this business I'm going into, I can't take it personally. I have to just keep going, knowing that God has something else planned in the future. I realized that God is testing me, and that everything does have a purpose. He's preparing me for this world of rejection I will face after college. He's giving me that tough skin I need to withstand all of the rejection.

I know I have this passion to act, and if anything not getting cast this semester made me realize that I am in this for the long haul and that I have dreams and aspirations. Soon I will be in Hollywood, making movies and being famous, and people will not believe that I had come from just being a normal kid who struggled and may not have gotten cast in college. I think that makes a better story and is an inspiration to other young kids to look up to. Acting is one of the hardest professions. It's not like anything else; you are constantly re-applying for jobs and are constantly throwing yourself into situations and getting rejected all the time.

I leave you this quote which is really funny and absolutely true to me. "To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum... When you find out what acting is like and what the odds are, and you still persist, the proof of your own insanity is inescapable. Accept it. The life of an actor is a bit easier to take in if you admit you're bonkers."

Perhaps this essay was a good luck charm. Shortly after this article was posted, Arrington won a role in TCU's upcoming production of "Sweet Nothing in My Ear."