You make your way on stage. The lights wash out your view for a second, then the audience comes into focus. You try to remember your first line. You are there to perform. If you are like most people, the anxiety has been building the whole day. If you are Emily Moore ’21, this is one of the places you feel most calm.

Moore has been an anxious person most of her life, but has only recently been diagnosed as having anxiety. Being around the unknown can be intimidating to anyone, but especially to her, and many others with anxious tendencies. However, for Moore, her recently discovered passion for acting, relieves her of some of the day to day stress she encounters. She finds solace in the character she is playing and is able to express herself without having to be herself.

“I think [acting] kinda gives me a break from trying to portray myself, because of the anxiety it’s more tough for me to do that, and so trying to take on the role of a character and studying what the character is like and what they would act like and say and all that kinda helps express myself through something other than my own personality,” Moore said.

Katherine Geerdes ’21, a friend of Moore’s, described her as a performer.

“[As a performer] I think that she’s very creative and isn’t afraid to try different things,”

At Northwest Junior High, Moore participated in drama club. She was in a medley of Shakespeare plays in seventh grade and in eighth grade she was in a play, written by the drama club mentor, about zombies. Alongside all this she was in band, choir and show choir. At West she is a member of marching band. She currently plays three instruments: bassoon, saxophone and violin.

Musicals are most interesting to Moore. She enjoys that there are multiple components, acting, as well as dancing and singing. For this reason, she has aspirations to audition for “West Side Story” in the spring.

“There are so many aspects to it, and there is just so much work that goes into it. It’s a story you can see happen,” Moore said.

Besides being a creative theatre kid, Moore is an extremely intelligent and modest person, according to her friends.

“I would say she’s funny and smart, and also annoyingly humble. She’s [also] a very empathetic person and that really helps her connect with others,” Geerdes said.

Zoey Guo ’22, another friend of Moore agrees. “[Emily] is someone I can trust and talk to, and has a great sense of humor.”

Geerdes isn’t alone in her assessment of Moore as a smart individual. Through her anxiety diagnoses and the different tests that accompanied it, Moore was told she had an IQ of 137. The average IQ is around 100 points. The correlation between mental health issues and intelligence is interesting to her.

“It’s amazing because a lot of times people with higher intelligence have lots of mental problems as well.”

Moore has humble, even self deprecating ways, but she has insight when it comes to others.

“I don’t think anyone should be self deprecating. Even if  they’ve done a lot of bad stuff… you should realize your mistakes and take time to fix them, but I don’t think you should have your whole life focus on how you messed up or what you did wrong.”

Moore takes this idea with her as she starts her first year of high school, and endeavors into the numerous clubs and activities West has to offer.