Show choir, the mixture of singing and choreographed dancing often in groups of people, plays an important role in the MHS music department and is a big part of certain students’ everyday lives. One of those students is freshman Lucy Murphy.
Lucy Murphy has been involved in show choir for three years, SCJH show choir for two, and MHS for one, though her interest for show choir sparked many years before that.
“My older cousin used to do show choir, and I think that’s what sparked my interest. I also love watching glee…. “ Lucy mentioned..
Not only does performing in show choir bring Lucy joy, other’s in the show choir benefit as well
“Lucy ALWAYS has a positive attitude and gives her all at every rehearsal. She is always helping others, practicing hard, and giving her best efforts no matter what!” shared Allison Broderson, MHS show choir assistant director and previous choreographer for SCJH.
Similar to show choir, Lucy is also interested in performing in musicals, specifically MHS school productions.
“Actually, a friend of mine, Rosemary, took me to Newsies when they did it at the high school and I think that’s really what sparked my interest in musicals because it was just a new experience and it was like.. ‘Wow!’” Lucy explained when asked what sparked her interest in musicals.
When comparing pros and cons, it’s easy to find pros about things you’re interested in, which is why Lucy had no struggles explaining the best parts of performing.
“(some pros are) making friends and making finals for show choir is really fun and I feel like I’ve grown connected more to some of my friends than I have in a long time and through show choir and musicals.” Lucy listed.
However, despite there being many pros, there are some cons to identify.
“It’s stressful (to perform) sometimes and the practices can be exhausting a lot cause we used to have after school immediately Wednesday I immediately after school Wednesday practices and they were kind of stressful and I didn’t have enough time to do some homework sometimes and so that’s a downside; but also with my disability it’s harder for me sometimes you do like a certain moves and stuff.” Lucy explained.
Lucy was born with a leg discrepancy, which is the shortening of a leg. She was also born with a club foot, which is when a shortened achilles tendon causes one’s foot to be turned inward, rather than resting flat.
“It’s harder for me to do certain movements because I can’t balance because there’s no muscle in my leg and that makes it harder to move sometimes and do activities like that.” Shared Lucy.
Lucy has had many surgeries throughout her life to correct her disabilities, her most recent one being at the end of her seventh grade year, when she got a metal rod implanted into her leg to lengthen the bone.
Lucy shared her experience with the transition from smaller medical attention to her big surgery, “it was definitely scary for me because i had no prior knowledge about it, and so I learned a lot about myself through that because before it was just like, ‘oh check ups’ and then it was like, ‘you’re going to get knocked out and you’re going to have a rod put in your leg and you’re going to have to do the whole long process where you can’t walk and stuff,’ so that was kind of scary.”
Not only did Lucy’s surgeries for her disability affect her and her love for performing, it impacted the people around her.
“It was really hard sometimes for my friends, (because) I feel like they didn’t get to see me as often because I was always stuck inside. I also feel like my family was affected because my sister and my brothers were probably affected because I got a lot of attention out of the household because of my surgery and it probably made them feel a little less loved and it just stressed my parents out a lot.” Lucy shared.
Although it was difficult, Lucy persevered despite her injury. Now that she’s recovered, show choir has been a large passion of hers and she plans for that to continue for a long time. Why? Because she follows her own advice.
“Keep on doing what you love because if you really care that much about it and you really love it that much, then nothing should be able to get in your way.” 
For more information on leg discrepancies, click on one of these links:
orthoinfo.aaos.org
childrenshospital.org
yalemedicine.org