During this new quarter, our class has begun working on a Blogging Challenge. From what I understand, there are different prompts each year for each “day”. However, due to covid-19, the 2021 Student Blogging Challenge isn’t happening this year. Instead, our class is completing a list of the “Top 10 Prompts” from past years. If you’re interested in my past challenge submissions, feel free to check out my About Me page and Commenting Guidelines; which were both the first and second challenges. As a part of our third challenge, we were to write about a topic we’re interested in and add various forms of media to our post. 

I chose the topic of Dear Evan Hansen (DEH), an award winning musical composed by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek; and also one of my most favourite Broadway shows. As a brief summary, Evan Hansen, a high school student, was told by his therapist to write letters to himself on why it “was going to be a good day” in order to build his confidence. However, once that letter gets into the hands of Connor Murphy, a fellow student, a huge misunderstanding follows, and Evan suddenly finds himself to be in the center of it.

The show portrays themes that many people, especially teenagers, resonate with; such as anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Although those topics may be unsettling to some, I believe that many of the songs are more light hearted than some may originally think, and that the lyrics do have some important messages such as “You are not alone.”

Here is a recording of one of my favourite songs from the musical called “Sincerely Me”. My friend, Claire, actually used that title for her blog. During this song, Evan Hansen and his family friend, the insanely cool Jared Kleinman, write emails that falsify conversations between Evan Hansen and Connor Murphy. It generally isn’t a good idea to “fake” conversations the way they did however, I feel that this song is very comedic and worth listening to.

Also, to those who are interested, check out this PDF for additional information on DEH. Thanks for reading!