What's the farthest you've ever stepped out of your "comfort zone"? I played Fagin in Oliver Twist

[cherokeeprogressive]

as a senior in high school.

I was walking out the front gate after the last class of the day... stoned... and my best friend noticed the poster announcing the auditions. "I bet you wouldn't do that". "I bet YOU wouldn't do that, chickenshit". We walked in... FOUR HOURS later we walked out. He was Oliver, I was Fagin. Oh. My. Fucking. God. I had no idea what the next four months entailed. Who knew I could sing?

7 nights. "A Man's got a heart... hasn't he???? We played to a total of almost 2500 people in the auditorium my Mom graduated in.

I was a Jock. Stoner. Then my boy told me "I bet you won't..."

I'd do it again in a New York Minute.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. We share the "Oliver!" experience, if you remember.

I was Oliver. Though, I always wanted to act.

Outside of my comfort zone...well, I was the president of our GLBT group at college. It was not our year to speak at the gay pride rally, but the college that was supposed to speak was unable to come, so I had to speak on the steps of the state capitol in South Carolina in front of 3,000 people, including MANY hate groups. I gave a really good speech...until the end. OK, wait for it....

I was so nervous, my knees were literally knocking behind the podium, though I looked composed, then...I gave out my home phone number!!! We didn't have a GLBT office, so my number was the one given out. I didn't even think about it. It only dawned on me what I had done was when the members of the group did that slow head turn and gawked at me.

[Populist_Prole]

2. Giving a quick speech as a best man at a friend's wedding

You know, if my piece could have been heard candidly it would have been a good one. As it was though, it was a put-on-the-spot moment during a typical cliche suburban wedding, and so it came off as stilted because I was just too rattled by being videotaped ( VHS cam-corded ) at such a momentous event, and being a solid "Type B" I just can't be a smoothie spontaneously. I kind of regretted it and hope it will be forgotten as the VHS tape quality turns to mush over time.

[LoveMyCali]

3. I belly danced at a Relay for Life event

The first time I did it I was so nervous that I actually had to remind myself to breath at various times during the day. Once I actually got there and danced I found out it was a blast. Now it's an annual event for me.

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. I was so pumped at the end of my first scene that when the curtains closed I walked off a staircase

leading to the dressing room. Tumbled all the way to the bottom.

[LoveMyCali]

7. Sounds like

you almost took the whole break a leg thing too seriously.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. I kid you not... I tumbled all the way down the stairs...

Had anyone been in my way? Who knows what might had had happened.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. The first time I ever left the US, I went to Africa.

I was the first to arrive in my group. I showed up in Ghana in the middle of a nation wide power outage. I didn't understand the currency exchange rate at all and paid the taxi driver easily 5 times as much as I should have and he said nothing. I showed up at the university hostel late at night in the pitch dark and found that they did not know my group was coming and there were no rooms. I sat on the front lawn and cried until a Ghanaian student walked over and helped me into a cab that took me to a very expensive hotel for diplomats. Due to a number of reasons involving communication barriers, I lost contact with the rest of my group and finding each other took 2 days.

The next 6 weeks involved living persistently without running water or electricity and eating food with questionable safety regulations. My commute to work took 3 hours each way for only 8 miles in a tro-tro. I was also once propositioned by a male prostitute at a trotro station who then refused to take no for an answer. I had to flee. Here is what a trotro station looks like...



I was the only white person for miles and I knew everyone was talking about me, despite the language barrier, because they kept using the word "obruni" in conversation which is sort of like "gringo." In fact, on several occasions, I had groups of Ghanaian youth walk up to me and ask to take a picture because they rarely ever see other youths who are white.

Overall, a very strange time in my life. I regret absolutely none of it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. "I regret absolutely none of it." FUCK. Would that the BEST of us could live up to your worst day.

Half the civilized world would pale in your shadow, but you know that. I sit here and think I've done something worthwhile with my life by teaching vocational education students in Los Angeles County... and I think... where did I come up short?

What can I say other than had I been in these shoes THEN, my life had taken another course...

[Gravitycollapse]

14. Everybody has different life experiences that are truly random...

I picked Ghana for study abroad because it was the cheapest program. Before that trip, I wasn't exactly an adventurous spirit. I just thought Ghana would be a nice vacation. I didn't really know the historical or contemporary economic situation of West Africa so I just assumed it would be like a resort. I realized I was woefully wrong right about the first time I had to fight for a bucket of water to carry up 4 flights of stairs just so I could flush the toilet and wash my face.

All I can say is if you think your life would be changed by such a trip, then take it.

[Locut0s]

9. Adventuresome travelling...

It can be terrifying, stress inducing and hell at the time. But few who choose to do it ever walk away saying anything different than you just did... "I regret absolutely none of it"

[regnaD kciN]

10. You must have been stoned...

...to not know that the title of the musical was Oliver!, not Oliver Twist.

[bluesbassman]

11. Singing on stage.

I've played guitar and bass for years, and did backup vocals but started singing lead just recently. First time I did it I forgot half the lyrics and almost threw up, but I kept at it and now I kind of enjoy it even if I'm still barely passable.

[panader0]

15. Playing gigs always makes me quite nervous-at first.

Practice, practice....

[Aristus]

12. A local Jiffy Lube caused $1,400 damage to my car once, and I got the

CEO to pay the damages.

It took a little while. I'm a pretty passive guy. It would have been easier (but more expensive) to just let it go. But my wife, who's very strong-willed, told me to petition the company for damages.

That was scary for me. I talked to the store manager on the phone.

"Sorry. There's nothing I can do."

I talked to the district manager.

"Sorry. There's nothing I can do."

I talked to the regional manager.

"Sorry. There's nothing I can do."

Each time, I remained polite and non-confrontational. I kept requesting to be forwarded up the chain of command.

Finally, I spoke with the Vice President in charge of Operations.

"Sorry, kid. There's nothing I can do."

"Then I'd like to speak with the President, please."

Taking my grievance all the way to the president of a company was way outside my comfort zone. But I kept arguing, explaining, making my case. I was shaking by the time I was done.

"Sorry, kid. There's nothing I can do."

I hung up, and sued for damages in small-claims court.

One day before the court date, the CEO called me and asked to settle. I met him at a local coffee shop where he handed me a check in the amount of the damages, plus court filing costs. I went over to the courthouse the next day, and told the judge that the parties had settled.

I had stood up to schoolyard bullies before, but never 1%-er CEO dipshits. That was a real victory for me.

[Locut0s]

13. Cool. More people should learn from this example!...

What exactly did they do to your car?

[panader0]

16. Jiffy Lube destroyed my friend's car by not tightening the oil plug.

It came loose, the oil drained and the motor seized up. He received a rebuilt motor, installed, for free.

[HipChick]

17. I never left home before, not even for an overnight stay

but when I did for the very first time, I moved to New Mexico from the UK...

[Chan790]

18. I ran for student office and became an activist.

I'm the steady intelligent #2 that has no desire to be the leader or the public face of anything I'm involved with. A born henchman, my best friend says. The architect and schemer, the person who enjoys strategy more than execution. I hate spotlights. I have no desire to be the field general.

In college, after realizing that nobody else was going to stand up for the resident students of the dorm as the activist hardass, I ran for campus president of the RHA. They were not prepared for me. Other people smiled and acted as extensions of the Res. Life office. I staged sit-ins. Other people spouted the company line from the Area Coordinators and VP of Student Life, I went to war for the concerns of my residents no matter how absurd. The very-Catholic administration spouted "Catholic Identity" on why RAs were to confiscate birth control, I declared my devout atheism and disdain for JP II and why I was willing to help any student that wanted one obtain an abortion. (Which was comical to my friends because my gf was the President of Students for Life) When people got written up for having sex, I volunteered as their representative before the housing court. I told the RA that won "RA of the Year" (given by the administration to the RA that best upheld the school's Catholic principles rather than to the one that was most beloved by the residents) that I viewed them as the administration's stoolie. I refused to report violations of university policies because I'm not an RA and it's not my job.

I was the activist monster they never saw coming. I was so quiet and well-mannered they didn't realize I had it in me to go to war for my residents.

[Tom Ripley]

19. I said grace at the family Christmas dinner this year

way out of my comfort zone

[Initech]

21. Hey at one point I was a full on church goer.

But I stopped going after 9/11 hit and all the Xtian fundamentalists from the Bush administration came out of the wood work and were saying crap about how the LGBT community was the cause for it, and so on and so forth.

[Tom Ripley]

24. I haven't been to church since I was twelve, and my family are aware of my agnosticism...

but I sort of got put on the spot. I just improvised a medley of phrases I had heard when others were saying grace.

[Initech]

20. I used to do karaoke for a while.

But quit after the restaurant I used to frequent stopped doing it. Although the best one I ever did was the Tenacious D song "Fuck Her Gently".

[dipsydoodle]

22. My son had the role of Fagin in a local production in a full size theatre.

When he came on stage I didn't even recognise him.

[LiberalEsto]

23. Leading Sunday services at a UU church

as a member of the worship committee, during the year we didn't have a minister. Did it a number of times.

I was terrified of any kind of public speaking for more than 50 years. Then I remembered that UUs are a forgiving group. They're not prone to hurling tomatoes, etc.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Playing a community theater role as the love interest of a character played by

a student at the college where I was teaching (fortunately, not MY student, but it was still weird).