I remember being crammed together, back-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder in the dark in the little hallway right outside the auditorium.  Bursting with excitement, we were all giggling so loudly, I’m pretty sure the audience could hear us.  But did it matter?  Of course not.  When the huge group of girls unexpectedly busted through the back doors of the auditorium, running through the audience in the dark with glow-sticks for the “rave” finale of the Class of 2010 Variety Show, all that did matter was us.  Our class.  The group of seniors who had worked together, thought of skits, written scripts, made up songs, choreographed dances, planned an entire show together.  A show we were proud of.  A show that while making, allowed us to make so many memories that meant the Class of 2010 Variety Show was more important than performing perfectly, or hearing how much the audience laughed, or tearing down the class of 2009.  Putting on that show was about the friendships we made with classmates we hadn’t even spoken with for three years and the memories that we’d never forget.  It was about how great it felt when the hours and hours of practicing a dance to a Michael Jackson song paid off when it actually came together.  It was about watching your friends perform an SNL skit for the thousandth time at dress rehearsal and laughing with everyone until you cried because it was STILL that funny.  It was about the thrill you felt on opening night when the lights came up and you stepped through the curtain to a packed auditorium for the opening act and not being scared because you knew how many people were standing right behind that curtain feeling just as nervous and excited as you were.  For the class of 2010, putting on Variety Show helped bring our class together, and was the catalyst to an amazing senior year.  It even continued to bring us together after we graduated, when we came back to John Carroll together to see the class of 2011’s Variety Show.  Honestly, I cannot imagine my senior year or even my high school experience being the same without Variety Show.

Understandably, when I heard about the cancellation of this year’s Variety Show, I was initially genuinely sad, considering my nostalgic attachment to the Variety Show tradition.  As I began to hear more about the issues involving the cancellation (which I admit, I do not have a complete perspective on) I just became really frustrated that Variety Show was going down the tubes.  While there may be some problems and kinks that need resolved to work out the logistics of the show and to make sure that the positivity of the tradition is still alive, definitively cancelling the tradition of Variety Show is NOT the best solution.  The members of the John Carroll community cannot let instances of superficial negativity involving select people cloud the deeper meaning of the tradition of John Carroll’s variety show.  Seniors must be willing to get involved.  Students and administrators must be willing to communicate and make compromises.  Variety Show must not become some kind of chronic conflict between different classes or between students and the administration.  Because the Variety Show was never meant to tear the John Carroll community apart.  Variety Show became a tradition at John Carroll for one reason:  To unite a class.  To unite a class through memories, friendships, and a chance to have the spotlight for those fleeting moments of being the seniors at John Carroll.  The show has so much positive potential, and it’s truly a shame that it has been cancelled for the class of 2012.  Missing out on Variety Show means missing out on the opportunity for memories and friendships that probably wouldn’t be made otherwise.  And when memories are all we really have once high school is over, doesn’t that mean working together to keep the tradition of Variety Show alive should be the most important thing?  John Carroll cannot just forget about the good times we’ve had with Variety Show.  The show must go on.

Erin Hanratty