You know the world can see us in a way that’s different than who we are…

Look, I know what you’re thinking, but let me explain! This is the one song that, for just a couple of weeks, made me feel like a pop star.

By day, I was just another 11th grade high school student. I rolled out of bed every morning at 6am to make it to school on time for my zero-hour AP Biology block, then muddled through the rest of my classes. Most aspects of my day-to-day life felt, at best, mundane.

But in the evenings, for two weeks in November 2007, I felt like a legitimate, big-deal famous person. The stage, the spotlight, the recognizable songs, the photo in the newspaper, the “sold out” stickers on the posters, the extremely loud cheers from the audience, the autographs, the flowers and other tokens of appreciation from fans. It all added up to this little taste of how it feels for everyone to adore you, and it was intoxicating.

“Breaking Free,” for those not familiar, is the climactic song and most famous moment from High School Musical, the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie that somehow morphed from a Friday evening special aired in the middle of January to an absolute cultural phenomenon. There had been dozens of Disney Channel Original movies before, but none of them had ever broken containment like this one did. The High School Musical soundtrack album moved 3.7 million copies in 2006 alone, becoming that year’s top-selling album. For some perspective on how big that number is, no Taylor Swift album has never had a bigger calendar year sales tally in the United States than High School Musical did in 2006.