In the middle of my fifth grade year, my family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. For months, I struggled with culture shock. I didn't dress like the other kids, I didn't sound like the other kids, I was in a completely different part of the school curriculum. I was miserable. Then my mom took me shopping.

I hated shopping. The town we moved to had a quaint little downtown, though. As we passed a newly renovated building, paper still covering the windows, my mom ran into a woman she had met at a ladies group. "They just opened a new theater," the woman told my mom, "They're starting a kids program." She looked at me. "I just dropped my daughter off, maybe you'd like to give it a try?" Anything but shopping. So my mom and her friend went off to visit the local boutiques and I discovered the place that would become my second home.

I found belonging in theater. I believe everyone deserves access to art, and the benefits of arts education for young people is invaluable to their growth and development. Theater makes better people and better people make a better world.