RENT

RENT...a broadway musical that I've always felt connected to, because I think seeing it was the first event in a series of events that changed the way I looked at life.  Why am i writing about this now?  Let's just say, John probably shouldn't have left me, the pregnant, hormonal, emotional woman, home alone with the DVD of the very last live show of RENT before it closed on Broadway.  For 3/4 of the "movie" I was not paying much attention, doing stuff around the house.. but sat down and really watched the last 20 minutes and then all the "extras".  My next mistake?--I then got out my journal from Up With People and read my entries from the last few days of the program--the days where we performed our show for the last time, and where our "cast family" said our goodbyes.  I saw the same pain on the actors faces in RENT as they sang their last song for the last time.  If you haven't seen the show, and I had to sum it up for you, or at least, what I took most from it, it would be the words "No Day But Today".  I saw this show in Madison when I was trying to decide if I should join Up With People or not, and it definitely helped solidify that decision.  Up With People was the next event in that series of events that changed my life, as it continued to teach me to live each day to the fullest.  Although my life has never been as crazy and busy as those 6 months with UWP, I feel like I have tried to continue to embrace those famous words as best as I can.  I feel blessed that I found someone to share my life with that believes in doing the same, and I can only hope that we can teach our daughter to embrace those words as well.  RENT closed it's curtains on September 7, 2008, the same day that I found out I was pregnant.  It always amazes me how chapters close and new ones open simultaneously.  Ahh...isn't reminiscing fun?  Ha.