Angela Walton

"Inside Out means the world to me..."

Life is funny in the sense that one choice can change the path of your entire life. It's only in retrospect when you realize what that choice was. For me, it was deciding to join Inside Out. At 13 years old, walking around in this world in a fog, I could not have known how Inside Out would impact who I was or how I see the world.

To understand what Inside Out means to me, first, you have to understand who I was. Eighth grade was the hardest year of my life. My grandmother who I was very close to, was dying of cancer. My parents had just gotten a divorce. I was deathly shy and I was starting to realize that the friends I had chosen were not the best influence on me. In fact, they were not even nice to me.

I could feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was angry and that anger made me bitter and mean. I had no outlet and I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone. I hated being in school and even more so, I hated being at home. When I heard about Inside Out I wanted to join because, aside from band, it would give me another after school activity so that I did not have to go home.

Immediately, Inside Out began breaking me out of my shell. I talked about things that were important to me, about how things in my life made me feel. I made new friends and even reconnected with one of my oldest friends that I had grown apart from. (We are still best friends to this day). I never would have thought that I would have enough courage to speak in front of even a small group of people, but one night, there I was, standing onstage in front of hundreds of people, as a Magical Dragon in a play about holding on to dreams.

After I completed the program, I spent a year away from Inside Out. Something was missing in my life. In 2002, I volunteered at the performance at Bovard Auditorium. It was that day that I realized that Inside Out had been such a big part of my life, and I couldn't just let go, I needed to stay involved in any way possible for as long as I could. So, when I was 15, I decided to apply to be a mentor. Being a mentor was the most fun rewarding experience of my life. It taught me how to be a leader and how easy it is to do my part to help make a change. Being a mentor in Inside Out is what inspired me to want to join the United States Peace Corps. I realized that Inside Out was about strengthening our community a little bit at a time. And joining the Peace Corps will mean doing my part to strengthen the global community.

Inside Out gave me the courage to believe that if I put my mind to something I could do it. They taught me how to express myself through writing, a passion that has never left me. I am now a graduating senior at California State University Northridge. After I return from the Peace Corps and take some time to explore the world, I plan to get a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Joining Inside Out changed the entire path of my life. I can only hope to give that same opportunity to kids in my community that deserve a chance to strengthen themselves. With that hope, I decided to audition to be an Artist Leader. Being an Artist Leader trainee was another growth experience for me and I am very excited to be an Artist Leader for the 2009 Spring School Project.

Angela Walton