The End Is The Beginning

The annual musical during my first year at Conestoga Senior High School was ‘Pippin.’ I played Pippin.

My mother said then, and has said since, that ‘Pippin’ is the story of my life. I think, in its way, it’s the story of all of our lives. Basically, it’s about the kid, Pippin, who’s the only son of King Charlamagne. End up, though, that he’s kinda’, um, restless. He’s unfulfilled. He graduates at the top of his class but tells his professors, “Thanks, but, there’s more to life than books, right?” He tries his hand at war (“Too much blood!”). He tries his hand at painting, the priesthood, and farming. And he murders his father to become King Pippin, which he ultimately hates as well.

So there I am, fifteen-years-old, little mop-headed bean pole of a thing standing on a stage in a king’s robe and a crown singing about the dawn of a new day for myself and my country. “Morning glow, morning glow / Starts to glimmer when you know / Winds of change are set to blow / And sweep the whole land through.” And then a semicircle of singers emerges from behind me — my courtesans — and back me up on the chorus.

I swear to God I have goosebumps right now remembering it.

Nothing is as exciting to me, nothing as moving to me, as the sound of the human voice in harmony. Last night at Sin-e, just 45-seconds into our first song, “California,” Casey and Tony backed me up in the chorus and I knew, from my head to my toes, from my skin to my bones i knew everything was going to be fine. I have my friends, they have my back, and everything is going to be fine.

From the bottom of my heart full of holes: Thank You. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Home truly is wherever we are together.