The song was “Smooth Criminal.” The audience was all 4,000 members of my fellow student body.

Minus me, of course, wearing an all-white suit, fedora and a single glove; a freshman standing alone on stage where I represented the veritable definition of ”sitting duck.”

In hindsight, it should have gone horribly wrong. In all honesty, it sort of did. I tossed my sunglasses too soon, the spotlight dimmed too late and my blue armband flew clean off.

And yet I smiled. And people cheered. A lot.

So much so that I was asked to perform for two more nights—the last of which saw me suffer through the stomach flu but somehow earn a standing ovation.

Which means two things:

1. The bar for a 14-year-old, female King of Pop impersonator is relatively low.

2. In life and on stage, it’s hard to go wrong when you’re having fun.