SUPERSTITION

“No one wants to pass up a chance for good luck---we rely on superstitions because we’re smart enough to know we don’t have all the answers. And that life works in mysterious ways.”
                                                                                                                             -Grey’s Anatomy

When you become a theatre major, you learn all about the superstitions within the theatre world. You never whistle in the theatre. You never say “good luck” in the theatre. You never say “Macbeth” in the theatre.

           In high school, we all used to lock pinkies and kiss our fists before the show began. I carried over this tradition when I was in college during the few shows I performed. I don’t remember us having any certain rituals in college; except we always did a group warm up with “No Bananas in the Sky.” College allowed for time for your own warm-ups—and maybe those were perfectly crafted based on the person’s own superstitions.
I have a quirk about numbers. I count stairs as I walk up and down them. I never go into an odd number of a bathroom stall in a public place; unless it ends in an odd number, then I go by a multiple of 3. I eat everything in even numbers. I have a quirk about colors. When I eat candy, it goes in a specific order: brown, orange, green, yellow, red, blue, purple, and pink. Seventy-five percent of the time, when I leave my room I have to tap the doorway with my right hand. As ridiculous as this may seem, it is what I do.
          My Type-A personality is to blame. Some Type-A personalities can turn their compulsions into something constructive, I just do strange things and have one too many superstitions.  Good luck—it’s there because we don’t know any better. Superstitions—they’re there because we have irrational beliefs or fears.
Find a penny, pick it up. Knock on wood. Don’t step on a crack. Don’t walk under ladders. Don’t break a mirror. Don’t open an umbrella in the house. An apple a day, keeps the doctor away. Find a four leaf clover. Close your eyes, make a wish, and blow out the candles. Cross your fingers. Don’t mess with karma.And, as Meredith says, “don’t diss the juju wherever it comes.”