I am told that wearing these chords that I have earned; on my day of graduation, will not be permitted. But these chords; they are not worthless. From the outside all you see is blue and yellow fabrics twined together and this holds no value to you. But behind these chords are the thousands of hours I have put into mastering my art, behind these chords are music notes, dialogue, stage lights, characterization, gallons of sweat and tears both real and fake, behind these chords is my directors, and a family I will have for a lifetime, behind these chords is history. Meisner, Chekhov, Adler, Meyerhold, Spolin, Grotowski… Stanislavski, and of course Thespis. By ignoring these chords you ignore all of this. To not highlight this award is to not highlight individualism. I am told that only academic awards are to be worn on my day of graduation. That is saying that only those who have followed the idealistic guidelines of an exemplary student can be looked upon as exceptional. You are telling kids that creativity comes after the mind numbing work that is set in front of them. And the best part is that it hurts absolutely nobody, literally no one is hurt by wearing Thespian chords. Gay people are still shunned and murdered for not being “who they should be”, minorities were shunned and murdered for not being like whites, Jews were shunned and murdered for being born into who they are and having no control over their heritage. These are all victimless crimes, I am sorry that I am who I am and you don’t understand me. But my chords are not worthless. Of course academics are a huge and great thing but everyone’s mind is different and we all excel in our own way. While they are home doing their homework, I am still on stage engulfing myself in performance, while they study biology I am studying lines. The scripts from Shakespeare are my history book. I do not study or learn or write history, I play history, I become history. I know men and women from hundreds of years ago on a first name basis; I was there during the civil rights movement… and the civil war. I experienced the renaissance first hand, I have seen murders and I have seen births. I have been a father and I have been a mother, I have been a fairy king and a fairy queen, I have been all over the world and I have been to hell and back. I have been stuck in an elevator like eighty times. I have saved the world and watch it perish. I have been the most popular and the most hated kid in school. I have been homeless and I have succeeded in business without really trying. I have done all of this and you still tell me that I have not done enough to deserve to be honored at my graduation. “These achievements are not adequate” and they do not fit your definition of what makes a good student. And I am honestly sorry that you will never see behind these chords because it is amazing back there. So you go have fun with your math stuff and I’m going to go take a ride in my streetcar named desire with a few guys and dolls to the funeral of some salesman, but like they say, “All’s well that ends well”.