Rakesh Chatrath (\u201816) submitted this article as part of our annual Seniors Speak series. This series is designed to give seniors who are leaving a final opportunity to share their voice and preserve the traditions and experience of IMSA\u2019s seniors alive long after they\u2019ve graduated. Rakesh lived in 1505 and was very involved in IMSA Student Productions (ISP) throughout his time at IMSA.<\/i><\/p>\n
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The past few months, I\u2019ve been having more and more conversations about the concept of unsung heroes \u2013 people at IMSA whose work goes unappreciated. In this Senior Speaks, the lens will be somewhere it rarely lies: me and what it\u2019s been like to be an ISP member, manager, and president.<\/p>\n
I joined ISP my sophomore year simply because my upperclassmen said it would be fun, and it was. Although I didn\u2019t experience it personally, I saw my upperclassmen being extremely criticized despite all the hard work they do. It wasn\u2019t until my junior and senior year that I really experienced this. As I did more events, I began to experience this pressure of having to perform on every event. Expectations of ISP continued to rise, and as president, I felt a pressure to be perfect; if we weren\u2019t flawless, we would get backlash. I responded by taking the criticism and working harder; I would tell new ISP members,\u201cWe\u2019ll be painted as a villain; this is our practice, our trade.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, once in awhile the criticism still gets through. Diwali 2014 was perhaps one of my worst experiences with this. I went to every practice for 5 hours each, recorded cues to the day of the show because we were given them only two days prior, and tried my best to accommodate the show as much as possible, even to the point of missing dinner a few times. Despite all the work I poured into the show, we still received backlash over little things like the audio having glitches because of bad cables or stage cues being off even though the directions were different the day of the show from our practices. It got to the point that several students and even a parent approached us asking why the cues were so off, topping off a mountain comments that we received. I felt as if I was running down an endless tunnel and that I was constantly being scrutinized. I felt we needed to be flawless, or else were doing a disservice to the IMSA community. The only gratification I could get was from myself, and in my head that meant I\u2019d never could be comfortable, because I always had to improve. To me, this pressure was insurmountable.<\/p>\n
At Clash this year when Camden gave a speech recognizing ISP, I had an indescribable feeling. He so accurately tapped into all the feelings, trials and pressures that being such an active member of ISP entailed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point that ISP has no longer become a privilege, but an expectation \u2013 Something that we expect to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
It felt so good to finally be recognized and to have some gratification. In hindsight, after Camden\u2019s speech, I realize that although \u201cbeing a villain\u201d is indeed a distinct aspect of what we do, there is an undeniable pressure and often an undervaluing of ISP. But, Camden brought up a point that I think often goes unaddressed at IMSA, whether it\u2019s in regards to ISP, StudCo or some other club. This got me thinking.<\/p>\n
This stigma isn\u2019t localized to only ISP; I noticed that StudCo felt these pressures too. After the Pep Rally, perhaps the most stressful and certainly one of the most difficult times for ISP, StudCo, and CAB, we were taking group photos after every student left. Suddenly, an ISP\/StudCo chant broke out for a few minutes, and I had a very gratifying feeling afterwards. Regardless of our service, ISP and StudCo are very similar. StudCo members feel this same underappreciation. As an organization, their services are largely unseen, and that which the students do see often come off as jarring and radicalizing to the IMSA community. During Clash, this pressure and expectation gets magnified for all StudCo members incredibly so.<\/p>\n
But, it\u2019s not just StudCo, it\u2019s not just ISP. Whether they\u2019re students in charge of a specific club or even the janitorial staff, there are loads of leaders and workers that pour their hearts into what they do for the IMSA community and never see an ounce of gratification. To them, I\u2019d like to say thanks; I\u2019ve been one of these \u201cunsung heroes\u201d and I\u2019ve been there. This is my ballad to you, but there are certainly others that haven\u2019t read this and never will. Find those people and thank them, because without them IMSA wouldn\u2019t be the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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