In the words of Maya Angelou,“Try to be the rainbow in someones cloud”. I auditioned for the part of Annie, in the spring musical, at Olney Central College. I love to sing, so I knew this would be an amazing opportunity for me to show my talents. My voice teacher helped me learn the song, for the audition, and my sister helped me as well. The audition was nerve-racking, but I was confident in myself. I got the part as Annie. When auditioning for Annie, I did not realize how many lines and songs I would have to memorize. Much like Helen Keller overcame the obstacle of not being able to communicate, I too overcame my obstacle of learning and memorizing all the lines and songs that Annie had.
Helen Keller had to overcome the obstacle of not being able to communicate. When Helen was two years old she got sick, and became blind and deaf. Can you imagine that? Helen could see everything and hear everything, and then the lights and sound just flickered off. The Keller’s hired Annie Sullivan to teach Helen because the Keller’s were beginning to lose hope in Helen to become a normal, well-behaved child. If Annie did not help, the only solution left for the Keller’s to do was send Helen to an asylum, which truly was not fair to her. Annie taught Helen how to trust people, be obedient to others, and to communicate in a way that she understood. Helen did not only overcome the obstacle, she laid it to rest. Helen would grow to be a successful, striving young woman who inspired many to never give up.
Like Helen Keller, I too had to overcome an obstacle. I had to learn all my lines and songs that Annie had. The first way I tried to carry out this process was just to read it over, and over again, with someone who was around. Although,that did not seem to click in my brain. I was then told by one of my teachers that an easy way to memorize lines was to write them down on paper. So I would sit in class, and instead of doodling, I would write lines. That worked very well for lines, but my music was still pretty rough. The only solution to memorizing my music was just to sing all the time. I would walk in the school halls and sing, as well as sing in the shower. I soon learned all my lines and music. I devoted so many hours to learning and memorizing that I almost forgot what this truly was for. It was to entertain a crowd and to inspire people to follow their dreams. I overcame my obstacle and performed for hundreds of people. There were a lot of people who were proud of me, but I was especially proud of myself. I overcame an obstacle that I did not think would be possible to overcome.
Although our obstacles are very different, Helen and I share some similarities. One way our obstacles are similar is we both had to learn how to do something that we truly did not know how to succeed at. Helen had to learn a lot more than me, but we both had to learn to trust what people said to us, to help us. I am what you would call a very independent person and I simply hate asking anyone for help. It was hard for me to listen to what people were saying to me, to help me, because sometimes I thought I knew everything, even though it was very clear that I did not. Helen was clearly not independent, but not because she did not want to. Her family and friends would not allow her to be independent. I think they tried to hard to make Helen happy when really she needed to learn how to make herself happy. 
Just like Helen learned to communicate, trust, obey, and understand language, I learned how to memorize words and music the best way I knew possible.  Helen’s story taught me to never give up on something that everyone around you knows will be good for you. One thing I learned from my experience, is to find a way to do something in the easiest way possible. Work smarter, not harder. The most amazing part of my experience was getting to see all the little kids that could not stop smiling, and singing all the Annie songs. These kids would walk up to me real shyly, and ask for their picture. Just to see that I made all these kids so happy, made me happy too. In the words of Helen Keller, “Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it’s lived for others”.