On Repeat

On repeat at my house lately: Three times that Idina Menzel changed my life:



This brings back memories of dancing around our Brooklane apartment with my roommate Sarah screaming at the top of our lungs to "Take me for what I am, who I was meant to be. And if you give a damn, take me baby or leave me!"  The first time I began to tell myself that it really may be okay to  "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -Bernard M. Baruch --Your life doesn't have to look like anything anyone else expects. It just has to be yours. And people can take you or leave you. As long as you're true to yourself, that's all that matters.



Where do I even start with this one. The first time I saw Wicked, it literally changed my life. I sat on the second row of the Gershwin theater completely captivated, covered in goosebumps, and tears trickling down my face as the first act came to a close. It was one of those ethereal moments where you can stick a pin in the exact moment of your life timeline and say, that one, right there, that moment was where it changed. "Something has changed within me, something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game... It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap. I'm though accepting limits because someone says they're so." The musicality of the whole piece. The way she starts off almost timid, then at the end you're just in tears as she belts out at full strength, "So if you care to find me, look toward the western sky. As someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to fly. And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free. To those who'd ground me take a message back from me. Tell them how I'm defying gravity. And you won't bring me down." I get chills every time. Even now as I type this.



Don't roll your eyes at me. "A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen. The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside. Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried. Don't let them in, don't let them see, be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal don't feel, don't let them know, well now they know. LET IT GO. It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all. It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through. Let it go and I'll rise like the break of dawn, let it go, that perfect girl is gone. Here I stand in the light of day, let the storm rage on."