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9.26.2011

I Was Cleopatra

For the Left to Write Book Club we read Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. This post was inspired by the book.

I was one of those people who was involved in a ton of stuff in high school. I was a swimmer, a soccer player, a dancer, a cheerleader, on the newspaper staff, but there was one thing I was not: An actor. I cannot act to save my life. I can speak publicly, but when it comes to taking on another persona... Forget it. Yet, I was chosen as the emcee of our variety show my senior year. Our variety shows always had a theme that ended with Knight (our mascot) in place of Night. Clever, huh?

Anyway, I was chosen to be the emcee. For this particular year, the emcee was Cleopatra. And I was supposed to act like her. I think the fact that I was the darkest girl who auditioned and don't get stage fright had a lot to do with me getting the part. Well, that and the fact that the director was one of my teachers who knew my personality. I just acted like myself. I doubt anyone was impressed by my ability to channel Cleopatra.

In the end I did alright, but it wasn't really that big of a stretch... After all, my personality tends to be strong, direct, sometimes aggressive. I'm pretty good at influencing people and can read a situation really well.

Like Cleopatra, I've often been misunderstood. Isn't that the unfair plight of a strong woman?

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of Cleopatra: A Life. To see how others were inspired by this book, visit From Left to Write.

2 comments:

Thien-Kim aka Kim said...

LOL. I'm not an actor either. I'm only good at being me. Your strong confident personality probably channeled Cleopatra just fine!

Brenda Bartella Peterson said...

Long live strong women. I'm sure you were great!