“We are all a work in progress. I find the most meaning in life not in falling into my common routine, but rather when I stretch out of the norm to learn and grow as a human being working toward the best possible version of myself.” –Morgan Spahnie

 

In the fall of 2011, I auditioned for my first high school production: The Jungle Book.  Though I was not cast, I remember vividly how impressed I was by a particular sophomore at auditions who read perfectly for Baloo and was cast as such.  After I was cast in the next production, War of the Worlds, my sister and I began driving that talented sophomore home from rehearsals every day, and over the course of that year, we both became very close with Morgan Spahnie.  Over my next three years in theatre with Morgan, two trips to Chicago with my sister, Morgan, and his brother, and countless nights spent in his driveway having car talks, Morgan became one of my closest friends, and was one of the hardest goodbyes I had to say to the theatre seniors that year.  I worked with him in journalism when he was Editor-in-Chief, and together we spent countless hours compiling the spreadsheets for The Devilier, and it was through him teaching me almost everything I know about journalism that I was able to become Editor-in-Chief the next year.  During his first year of college, Morgan mostly stayed inside his comfort zone, spending a majority of the time with his friend Nicole from home.  However, in May of 2015, Morgan told me that he was gay.  This came as a shock to me (mostly because he had been in a two-year relationship with a girl in high school), but of course I felt no differently about him.  His coming out made him a role model for me because he was finally able to be shamelessly himself.  Due to his Catholic upbringing, he fought for many years with his sexuality, but it makes me so incredibly happy that he now embraces the part of him that he used to keep hidden deep down.  He is always working on improving himself, as he said in his quote, and trying to become the best possible version of himself.  He has stepped outside of his comfort zone this year and has experienced so many new things that he never would have had not come to fully accept who he is.  Morgan and I have so many wonderful memories together and he constantly reminds me to be myself and let my freak flag fly by simply being himself.  He has also become much more in touch with his emotions of late and grown so much in his emotional capacity, which helps me achieve my meaning in life because we are now able to build our relationship even stronger.