“Tearing my ACL sophomore year was a blessing in disguise,” junior Alissa Santana said.

During summer going into Sophomore year Santana was jumping up for a rebound and coming back down, her ACL gave out and tore.

Before Santana tore her ACL she was a two sport athlete. Freshman year Santana played volleyball and basketball. After tearing her ACL she was devastated that she wouldn’t be able to play again.

After recovering and realizing her athletic career was over, Santana discovered a passion for a new activity — theatre. It was always apart of Santana’s life but she was never fully committed to it until after her accident.

“I have done theatre since I was little because my mom owns a theatre company, but after I tore my ACL I started to realize I wanted to do acting after high school so I started working more on it,” Santana said.

Santana has taken acting classes at Niles West since freshman year, but after her accident, she focused solely on her acting classes and began to develop more confidence when it came to theatre. She even started auditioning for shows at the end of Sophomore year.

After high school, Santana plans on acting in college and hopefully beyond. Currently, Santana is in a Niles West production called Midsummer Night’s Dream. The show open next Thursday in the black box theatre.