Seasons of love.

The very first Broadway show I ever saw was "Rent."

I was 17 and a senior in high school. I was in New York City for a week because I had made the National ACDA Honor Choir and was with three other students and a handful of chaperones. Our week was spent in rehearsal from 8 am to 6 pm. It left very little time for sightseeing, but we still managed to get in a few tourist ventures.

My boyfriend at the time had made the Men's Honor Choir, which had a different rehearsal schedule than the one I was in -- there was one night when we had a late night rehearsal and his did not. So he and one of the chaperones saw a Broadway show. I don't even remember what show it was now, but at the time I was so mad. All I wanted to do was see a show, and that asshole not only got out of rehearsal early but got to see a show on Broadway? Oh hell no.

I bitched and moaned enough that one of the chaperones had pity on me and called in a favor to one of her friends. It turned out that her friend was friends with the guy playing Benny in "Rent" and he hooked us up with front row seats.

"Rent" remains one of my favorite shows to this day. When I originally saw it, I was 17 and from a small town and had never met an out homosexual in my life. As I sat in the audience, bawling my eyes out during Angel's death and Collins' "I'll Cover You: Reprise" and Roger and Mark's fight, as cliche as it sounds, my life changed. I love everything about the show -- the songs, the message, the staging, the characters. It introduced me to my first drag queen. And what a fabulous drag queen she was. I have now seen a variation of the show more times than I can remember, and I am reduced to tears every time. Sloppy, inconsolable weeping.

When we got back to Texas, there were only a few months until graduation. My choir did a spring concert that had a Broadway theme, and, like thousands of show choirs before us, we performed "Seasons of Love." Also cliche, but I love this song. So much. It's one of my favorite songs from the show. It makes me believe that love is indeed all we need. There is a major lack of love in the world and it's songs like these that make me realize that I need to make sure that I'm spreading as much love in the world as I can. I admittedly am prone to getting caught up in the negatives in life, so it's nice to have a reminder that my energy -- everyone's energy, really -- is better spent with love.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love? How about love?
How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love
Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died

It's time now to sing out
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

Remember the love
Remember the love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love

-- Seasons of Love ; Jonathan Larson