Just You Wait

Today I'm talking about Hamilton: An American Musical.

This has been one of the biggest things in my life as of late, and I feel I should tell my tale of.
I remember the first time I heard of it. I was opening Buffalo Wild Wings listening to my favorite podcast, My Brother, My Brother, and Me.

You know who else is a big MBMBaM fan?

Lin Manuel Miranda.

And he was a guest, and it came up on the podcast, I was so excited. He was so cool on the podcast, so humble and real. Human, he gave me the courage I needed to launch myself back into the world of acting and writing.

To tell you the truth I was considering quitting. My last show had been Fiddler on the Roof, and it hadn't been the best for me. I felt alienated by the cast. I screwed up a show. I felt talentless. There was this makeup girl who knew me before I knew her and she was not my biggest fan.

And had it not been for Lin Manuel Miranda's guest spot on MBMBaM I'd be in a different place right now. I wouldn't have been George Banks in Mary Poppins, or any subsequent role I had after. I wouldn't be close to any of the people I am now. I wouldn't have convinced that makeup girl that I was an alright guy.

So let's fastforward a year-ish. And Hamilton the Musical is released on Amazon. And I'll tell you, that changed my life right then and there.

Alexander Hamilton was a protagonist unlike anyone I had ever experienced.

He was flawed. He was afraid. Alexander Hamilton by way of Lin Manuel Miranda was this braggadocios man, an explosion of humanity. He wasn't some kind of invincible tower, he wasn't machoman. He was human, he felt, he cried, he loved, he feared. He was arrogant and argumentative. He was angry and heroic and brave and brash. He made mistakes and he shaped America. I suddenly found this courage within me that I didn't know lie there. 

I'm self-obsessed. I'm arrogant. I can be condescending, I can be over-reactive, I can be pretentious, long-winded, annoying, sappy, foolish, impulsive, alienating, I can be all kinds of things.
And Alexander Hamilton taught me that is okay.

That doesn't mean I can't be a hero, that doesn't mean I couldn't change the world, that doesn't mean I'm not a good man with potential to reach my dreams.

Alexander Hamilton taught me my words were something to be proud of, a tool, a weapon, a power, not some second-rate sissy ability that I had because I'm lousy at athletics.

There is this righteous passion, this conviction that Hamilton has as a character. And I don't think there is a better way to showcase this than in hip-hop. This isn't something you can just belt, this is a man who wrote more in half a life then most men wrote in a lifetime, you need the rapid-fire syncopation rhythms of hip-hop to do it. And sometimes it's traditional musical theater, but Hamilton really is something else entirely.

This might be less about the music and more about the ideas and what I learned. It's more personal than song by song, 46 songs are quite a lot to do a play by play on.
Hamilton possess this need to prove himself to everyone to the world.
"...this obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother..."
I mean, that's me.

I have a lot of good ideas, and I am confident they're good ones. I'm flying by the seat of my pants. I'm making it up as I go along. I'm just doing my best and I'm here to change the whole damn world.
There are so many lessons I've learned from Hamilton.

Let's bring back the angry makeup girl who hated me.

Her ringtone is "My Shot" From Hamilton. 

Three months after I discovered this fact we'd stand in my driveway arguing over whether Aaron Burr was a good man or not. It would be one AM when this fight took place.

If you haven't picked up on this yet the angry makeup girl is Caitlin.

She argued, and the music proved that villains are a matter of perspective. Aaron Burr became "The villain in your (Hamilton's) Story"

And that changed my perspective on things a bit. Maybe the people I view as the villains in my life, as melodramatic as that sounds, are just people I have the wrong perspective on.

Reality is subjective, no one can really give you an unbiased account, we all remember our own stories in a biased point of view. And it's easy to argue that at many times Hamilton became the villain in other's stories, and perhaps I'm the villain in other's stories. You don't get to decide "Who lives, who dies, who tells you story."

There are so many times throughout Hamilton that I relate to it.

"Eliza, I don’t have a dollar to my name
An acre of land, a troop to command, a dollop of fame
All I have’s my honor, a tolerance for pain
A couple of college credits and my top-notch brain"

I'm not here to say that I'm the smartest, but I will admit and brag that I'm clever, and I work hard to gain knowledge and give myself the most information I can. I am broke as hell and I mean jack squat to the world right now. I have nothing to offer except the clothes on my back and my wits. 

But again it's that desire, that drive, that hunger for more. For fame, for notoriety, to change the world.
The hunger to make a difference, to make a wave, to matter. 

I am the speck screaming at the universe that I matter.

I have the arrogance to believe that I, Bailey Olmstead, a nobody from nowhere can change the world.

I have the arrogance to believe that I, Bailey Olmstead, will be more than I am, more than what I have, I can rise above status and situation and create something, maybe not a whole country, but I'll be damned if I go quietly into the night.

The worlds gonna know my name.

Just you wait.

There is a reason this has blown up in the way it has, because the message of the underdog is an American story, Hamilton is an American story.

I'm not the only one this musical has made feel the way it has, and that's the idea.
On July 20th I will be going to New York City to see Hamilton, and I can't wait for my life to change once more. 

I'm going to need a lot of tissues.

There is a picture online of the first time Lin Manuel Miranda performed Hamilton, all those years ago. When he said the now iconic words "My Name is Alexander Hamilton" They had to pause for laughter, it was so ridiculous to people. Sunday night they had to pause for the screaming applause.
"They will laugh, keep writing." Lin tweeted to a young aspiring writer.

That hit home.

That really did.

I've spent a lot of time as the butt end of a joke, but hey, My Name is Bailey Olmstead, I'm only 17 but my mind is older. And I think I can do this, I know I can do this. 

I'm going to change the world.

Just you wait.

Sincerely,