It was September 2024, and it had been a month since Grade Six had started. We knew there would be a performance of the musical play The Wizard of Oz, as it was the talk of the school. For the audition, our English teacher gave us a few lines to practice. I really wanted to be one of the characters in the play, so I worked very hard for the audition.

Eventually, the day of the audition came, and so did my turn. I gave it my best and scored the highest. I was overjoyed and truly thought I would be selected for the second round of auditions.

The next day, we found out who had been selected for round two. My name wasn’t on that list. Isn’t it painful? When you do hard work, you get appreciated, but in the end, you’re left with nothing…

It was more discouraging for me because, sometime before that, there had been a debate competition. I participated but I was not selected for the final round, even though I had been winning first prizes consecutively for two years,. So this time, my heart was shattered into pieces.

When I told a close friend about this, she said, “So what? You don’t need to be selected for everything!” To me, it sounded quite rude, but I also thought that perhaps she was right, and that being selected wasn’t in my fate this time. Still, it was difficult to accept that I wasn’t selected for the second round when everyone had appreciated my performance and my score was high.

After a few days, on a Friday, our English teacher explained in the class that the selection criteria were based on marks and told the marks of the students who had cleared the first round. Still there was no mention of my name. Then a girl asked about me. The teacher checked my marks from the first round and noticed an error. She apologised after realising that the selection body had miscalculated my marks. She then gave me an audition slip for the second round. A second chance!

To my surprise, when I went to the drama teacher for the second audition round, she really liked my accent. I got a hint that I might be selected for one of the characters, but I didn’t want to get my hopes too high like last time, so I stayed focused on it as well as my regular school work.

Eventually, I received the message that I had been selected to play the lead character, Dorothy! I was over the moon. She was one of my favourite characters!

To be honest, being the main character was no small feat. To me, it felt like my world revolved around Dorothy and her dialogues. From November to December, I started memorizing the script, which was very long, but my determination helped me learn it.

We started rehearsals at the end of January, and it was a very hectic time as the final play was in February.

I had just given my monthly assessments and along with that, I had to focus on learning the script properly, including the accent and action delivery. Because of this, my assessments didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted. Soon, rehearsals began, and I was required for almost every scene or musical performance organised by different teachers, sometimes at the same time and sometimes at different times throughout the day. At home, I could only manage to complete my missed classwork.

Time passed in the blink of an eye and there I was, standing on the stage in our auditorium, ready for the final rehearsal with all the other characters. We gave our best and were appreciated, despite a few small mistakes, but overall, it went quite well.

The day everyone had been waiting for finally arrived. I remember that on the final day, my hands felt clammy, and it was as if I had butterflies in my stomach.

The first three scenes went well, but I may have mixed up the fourth and fifth scenes. Luckily, it was covered up and no one noticed except those who were on stage. Somehow, everything still went well and I was also appreciated by my teachers. I really enjoyed performing along with my fellow characters.

I will never forget my classmate speaking up for me when I was down in the “dungeons,” feeling so discouraged that I didn’t speak up for myself. Had she not enquired about my selection, I wouldn’t have played Dorothy, and I am really grateful to her for that.

It has been almost two years, since those memories, but I will forever cherish them as some of my golden memories.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 20th, 2026