Aaron Shapiro

Life is a constant culmination of moments. This is the lie I choose to believe for now. Got to believe in something. I feel good knowing I have lived my life thus far as hard as I could. I will one day die. Today I will live. I am a lover and a fighter. I make the people around me stronger. When I meet our maker... I will have a few bones to pick. Understanding paradox is paradoxical. Regret is mostly pointless, but not always. There is meaning in the meaningless. I have been hurt...but I was loved before that!Recently I fancy myself a philosopher. Though my life has taken quite a few unexpected turns, I believe purpose can be discovered at any moment. I believe in believers and that has led me to fantasic places. I hope for hope and wish for wishes. Meaning has more than three dimensions.I started up a theatre company with some people I went to school with. Oracle has become my temple. I believe in it more than I believe in just about anything else.I was a double major in theatre and economics. I know what a weirdo. I've always just found them similar in that they are both different ways of examining the world around us.I grew up in LA (the valley) until I was 15. Then I followed my mom and brother out to the suburbs of Chicago. Kind of a culture shock. Anyways...lets go back a bit. So I was homeschooled for a few of my early years. I skipped 4th and 6th grade. The I went to a college prep school for 7th-12th graders when I was 12. I did homeschool a few more years and then landed up at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts my junior year. Then I skipped my senior year and started attending Cal State LA at 15 years old. Well...15 in college went just fine the first quarter but the next one...It is hard to pass your classes when you stop going. So I was visiting Chicago when the report card came in...and...I've been in Chicago ever since. So I went back to being a 2rd semster Sophmore at Downers Grove North High. This had two effectcs; 1)Perhaps brain damaged me a bit as I spent the subsequent 2 1/2 years retaking classes I had already aced, and 2) I finally learned how to socialize. I never did any homework and I had got interested in performing at the Arts High School...that left a lot of time for the theatre. As the story goes...the choice to become an actor was equally for myself as it was probably (in retrospect) to piss off my parents. But I went up to Barat College in Lake Forest which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. For my work ethic had been shot to hell unless it had to do with the theatre. Somewhere around my Sophmore year I had to finally ask myself why it was I wanted to act. I tryed out directing and knew immediately that was my calling. I just found myself far more intrigued with what an audience walks away with. Perhaps the best thing about Barat was, at Barat I got away with learning the things I wanted without being bogged down by the unpleasantness of homework. So I graduated Cum Laude with Departmental Honors in both economics and acting/directing. A year later, I restarted Oracle with some friends from school. And I eat sleep and breathe Oracle now.