It's amazing how a term seems so understandable to me now, yet when I heard it for the first time I was totally clueless.

It was in Grade 9. The school musical that year was Anything Goes. Despite my distaste for cruise ships, I thought I was destined for Broadway and auditioned so that I could be in the chorus.

The audition went well as the panel asked me to sing another song: Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

Bonnie: Seriously?

Director: No, do it with a little chutzpah. Pretend you grew up in the Bronx.

I was glad he added in that second part since my Yiddish was totally rusty.

The next day, there was a sheet taped to the wall outside the drama room with the word "callbacks" at the top and a list of character names with student's names beside them.

I found it really odd when my name was there, along with one of a girl three grades ahead of me, for the role of Bonnie Latour — Moonface Martin's attractive but not-so-bright girlfriend.

When the older girl snubbed me in the hallway, I kind of got the picture. Especially when my drama teacher congratulated me on it.

Teacher: What are you going to sing for your callback? Did they give you any lines?

Bonnie: Uh, was I supposed to talk to somebody about it?

Okay, so I was a bit too much like Bonnie Latour at that particular moment, but that was okay. The other girl did a fabulous job with the role, as I saw it from my position in the chorus line.

And, being that she was graduating that year, I knew that things were going to be opening up for me real soon.