I’ve been in America nine weeks, which is the longest I’ve ever been in this country. For the most part, I think I’ve gotten used to the culture, the jokes and the fads.

But just when I think I know America fairly well, it throws a new surprise at me. Recently, it’s been showing me how things get real here, or in my case, how things get unreal. Sometimes I feel like I’ve stepped into a movie.

I’m a huge movie fan. I’ve seen my fair share of high school dramas, late night parties and one-night stands on the silver screen. After so many dramas and chick-flicks, I’ve come to the conclusion that the drama that happens on the screen is an exaggeration of what really happens in people’s lives.

Once I met ACU, and the cameras in my head hit the record button, I found out my assumption was wrong.

Every conversation I had felt like interviewing special characters with their own unique catch phrase and theme song. I saw so many laughs, kisses and tears first hand. The stories that I watched in the cinema reappeared in the lives in front of me. Unfortunately, unlike movies, I couldn’t choose the lives in front of me and I heard about things I wished only happened in movies.

Maybe to the average American my new knowledge is normal, but the truth still stands that the world is one scary cinematic experience. I have met people who once tried to kill themselves, people who lost their parents, people who talk about cutting themselves, people who were victims of sexual assault and people with broken hearts. The list goes on.

I took a step out from this movie I stumbled into and realized that, in the grand scheme of things, Shakespeare was right. The whole world is a stage and we are all characters playing many parts. Then, a question for myself arose: What is my part to play in all of this?

It’s a question we should all ourselves from time to time.

Ask yourself now: What character are you playing?