In high school, I played Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web.

I didn’t like spiders at all, they gave me the heeby-jeebies.

Still, I was grateful for the role.

It was small, simple, a kid’s play.

An hours worth of short scenes retelling a beloved children’s story.

That being said, something magical happened.

It was magical in the way that you don’t realize it happened until you look back on it.

I was a scared 17-year-old, trying to navigate the slippery slope of adolescents.

Holding on to my childhood as the sands of times drained in my hourglass.

And here I am playing a stupid spider that dies.

But there was something in the way the kids rushed up to me after the show.

Something in the way that I bowed alongside my humble pig.

Something in the way I could feel my onstage demise caused tears to fall.

I felt important.

And you can get your goosey bottom that I will never kill another spider again.