There are few times in life where we get the opportunity to see our thoughts and visions manifest themselves into reality. When I step into the theater, I get that chance…if only for a fleeting moment.

When I leave the theater, I move back into reality. It’s not my reality though; it’s the worlds reality.

When I am on the stage, I am suddenly given the keys to Heaven, and I can mold, shape, and create the world I envision in my mind. I am free to express myself in my deepest form, and I am suddenly alive. Alive in the way that a bird must feel when it is released from captivity back into the wild. There is a tranquility in the mere idea that there are no boundaries, no checkpoints, and no limits on my own creativity and individuality.

There is only freedom and hope.

You are creating the world you envision were you not fettered by such inhibiting factors as reality. And the dream you are pursuing, that you are relentlessly chasing, is that of the world you dream for yourself when you are alone and your eyes are closed. Creating this temporary world, even with the knowledge that it is just a moment in time, gives you the hope and desire to push on, even as the tide rises and washes your sandcastle back into the sea.

But there will be more sand castles. And they will be bigger. And taller. And more elegant. And each one that is washed back into sea will only motivate us to build again, and to improve on our previous design. It gives us hope that we can create our own world, even with the knowledge that it’s not permanent.

But it is real. At least in my mind. And reality is what we believe it to be.

And so I keep stepping back into the theater. Back into my reality. Back into life.

It is what is real in my heart.

-Z