Every person on the planet has been given some form of a gift. We all have something about us that make us unique, or special. The range is huge. For some people their gifts are obvious, and easily put into practice. For some people if feels like everything they touch turns to gold, and everything comes easily to them. For others we need to dig a little bit deeper to see what specific areas they have been blessed in, what talents lie beneath the surface, but I promise you – we all have a gift. We have all been given an edge in some area of life – be it brains, beauty, empathy, compassion, skills, heightened senses or perception – there is always something. To me this is a given. What isn’t a given is our ability to first recognize it, and second to make a decision to use it. Are you able to see what areas you are blessed in? Or are you feeling ordinary? Do you spend all of your time trying to cover up the things that make you special? Or are you willing to shine a light on them and use them to your advantage? The gift was just that – a gift. What you do with it is ENTIRELY up to you.

If you have been listening to the show for a while then you might know that when I was in high school I was super nervous, socially anxious, did anything to avoid being seen kind of girl. I had friends, but I was lost without them. I wasn’t teased or bothered for the most part – in hind sight I think most people probably thought I was nice and a few guys even tried to ask me out, but I was too shy for them to be able to form any connection with. I was clueless about my own gifts, and the ones that I did recognize terrified me so I tried my best to cover them.

The anxiety eventually came to a point where I wasn’t sleeping, I was exhausted ALL the time. I would wake up in the mornings when my alarm went off and then find myself in bed again hours later, haven fallen asleep and having no recollection of going back to bed. I was missing classes left, right and center – both from not being able to get out of bed and from not being able to force myself to walk into a class of my peers on the days when I did make it to school. If my friends weren’t going to be there – there was no chance I was showing up. If I had to do any form of public speaking – not happening. I would pick up homework, show up for tests (I have always been the odd one out that loves taking tests) and I would drop off assignments, but the social aspect of high school was a complete deal breaker for me. Eventually the school kicked me out for poor attendance. The Vice Principal told me that “I was making the other kids feel bad” because they never saw me in class but always saw my picture on the honor role. It was setting a bad example and instead of them trying to address the root cause they decided to kick me out until I could maintain better attendance. That’s when I started doing correspondence and homeschooling myself, which honestly was a WAY better fit. The following year I caught wind that the school’s musical theatre class was going to be doing Les Mis and I HAD to be in it. I talked to the school about doing just 2 classes in school and continuing the rest through the online program I was currently using. This would mean that I could be a part of the musical, and because the arts programs for our high school took place in an entirely different building – my social interaction with the school’s general population would be pretty limited. Win win. I was also a year older, in the 12th grade (so the oldest in the school) and had gained a touch of confidence in the year I’d been off. I don’t 100% remember what brought the conversation about, but my music teacher, who was doing the casting for the play, told me that when we have been given a gift like the ability to use our voice to bring joy into the world, and into people’s lives it is a responsibility to use our gift, to spread joy and to not be so concerned with what other people think that we selfishly hide our