The smell of spices and onions filled the room.
She began her story of Kibbeh.

Maybe I was looking for a life lesson about relationships or maybe I had the impression that an older woman entering the dating scene would somehow know how to navigate it more than I do at my age...

The moment I walked in, I was asked for my name. "Miriam," I said shyly and ducked past the spotlight into the first aisle. 

I started getting really excited when they started mentioning conspiracies. I had to hold back the whole time from screaming "YESSS EXACTLY!" I spent most of my time wondering if they were acting as themselves, because all I wanted to do was have an in depth conversation with them.

I've missed the psychology classes I used to take. I've missed hearing the terminologies and the reality that humans are in fact not perfect, but are so skilled are hiding their inner struggles. 

As the play began to unfold, I found myself constantly second guessing the play's reality. Did the protagonist have schizophrenia? Wow, I can't believe he killed his boyfriend. Wait his boyfriend's not dead? Wait his girlfriend is dead? Who are the other people in his head? Did he really meet that crazy woman in the woods or did he imagine it? Was that crazy woman really his mom?

As the show progressed, Nora talked about her disco life in NYC with her gay best friend David. There were photos of David that would appear on the backdrop. He was a handsome fella. Nora said that he had the kind of energy that made everyone want to speak to him. She talked about how she became a stripper and he became a high class escort in order to pay for rent. 

I did feel a sort of pressure to impress him with the play I chose. But in all honesty, I had no idea how the play was going to be... So, I was surprised by the way I connected to this show. 

Some time last year, I became obsessed with podcasts and, being a writer, I thought podcasts would be a really cool platform to share stories. Luckily, this obsession coincided with my class picking for the fall semester. It was a snowball effect that led me to my present situation of creating my own podcast. 

Now after this week's events. It's extremely difficult to even have words to say. How can I write about a play, a book of a dystopian society when we might be about to start living it?