←Recommendations of Boy's State (a monologue)

Sickles manages to capture queer anxiety, regret, and longing so effortlessly in one simple, solid monologue. Everyone has a "what if" in their life that plagues their mind forever, in all of its curiosity and despair. "Boy's State" lingers in that exact same way.

This is a powerful depiction of regret for a road not taken. So many good memories of the narrator's Boys State experience are overshadowed by one failure to connect. There are certainly numerous humorous recollections but the cumulative effect is moving and as enduring to me as it was for the narrator.

We have all met hundreds of people in our lives. Some we know, most we don't. Every now and then, the people in the latter group fill our memories and occupy our thoughts. Scott Sickles's endearing and powerful monologue brings to life the funny, awkward and cringe-inducing youth conference of his teen years, punctuating it with a random encounter (but not an interaction) that still haunts the writer like it will haunt the audience long after the lights go down.

Damn it, the things that keep us up at night... These haunting "what ifs" are equally tragic and mysterious to those with social anxiety, and the ones from childhood before, we had a true sense of self, are the most painful. SCOTT SICKLES is a master of creating monologues with depth and details that help us all connect to real emotions.

Frank Sinatra sings, "Regrets, I have a few, but then, again, too few to mention." Well, goody-goody for him. As Scott Sickles reminds us in his touching little memoir, many of us have regrets that haunt us for a lifetime. Many of them, as here, involve ill-timed moments of fear that result in chances not taken or words not spoken. This monologue is totally relatable. Read it and perhaps shed a tear for Scott's regrets and perhaps your own.

Imagine my surprise to find a piece of Scott Sickles' writing featured - and imagine my delight in reading the piece, transporting myself to a youth known but not lived, understood but not experienced. The universality of "Boy's State" and the unmistakably Sicklesian way in which the piece is written helps it feel familiar and surprising all at once; familiarly insightful, surprisingly affecting, inescapably Scott.

The story contained in this monologue is so simple yet so powerful. That feeling of alienation and the ensuing loneliness is heartbreaking. The writing is exquisite, pulling the reader in from the first word and never letting go until the end. Excellent and impressive read.

Life is a mixture of the good, the bad, and the mundane, and in that mix, we come together in all our awkward, self-conscious glory. Scott Sickles captures this perfectly in a (memory?) monologue detailing a short stay at a Boy's State Gathering in which he experiences highs, lows and the confusing in-betweens of whatever life throws our way. Evocatively written, Scott opens the curtains and gives us a glimpse into one boy's life and in some ways, lets us see into a mirror as well.

This a moving and haunting monologue about the tyranny that keeps LGBTQ+ youth in the closet and opportunities missed when you have to live in fear. It's a universal piece about regret and chances not taken told from the poignant lens of the closet.

BOY'S STATE is a powerful monologue about connection, choices, and regret. It's the moments we replay in our minds about what might have happened 'if' as well as who we might have become. Scott Sickles writes with so much honesty and vulnerability about sexuality and loneliness, making this a truly special piece.