Sincerely, Us: A Dear Evan Hansen gift exchange

Navigation / FAQ / Exchange Pinglist Signups are closed for the summer exchange, assignments will be sent out this week!!

[sincerely-us]

Hello all! I wanted to make a post to let you all know there won’t be a winter Sincerely Us this year, and likely won’t be for the foreseeable future. There’s several factors going into this decision for me, my primary reason being my own personal well-being. A lot of time and effort goes into these, and being more stressed at the dates approaching rather than excited for them has made me decide it’s time to pass the torch.

Other factors are that the fandom has been shifting and I have been drifting from it. I still love the show very much, but I’ve been a fan for over 5 years and have begun to exhaust my personal creative avenues towards it. It’s also much smaller, which is a hinderance with something like a gift exchange, which requires a minimum participation to be doable.

I’m more than grateful to everyone who has participated, the familiar faces and those who only came in for a short time. Don’t take this coming to an end as me not enjoying or appreciating the time we shared together—it is very precious to me and I will genuinely remember it for the rest of my days.

You’re more than welcome to start your own exchange, but I’ll be keeping this blog and url as a fun way for me to look back on the good times we all had and just in case I ever want to do another for whatever reason.

Thank you for everything.

Sincerely, me

[claireverlasting]

Dear Evan Hansen

Today is going to be a bittersweet day and here’s why: You’re leaving Broadway.

I discovered the show back in 2021 (end of May or early June as well, I’m not kidding), and it immediately became one of my all time favorites. I never got to see it live in any form, just the bootleg floating around the internet. It was and still is my go-to show whenever I’m feeling down or lonely and need a good cry. Always hoping to be able to watch it live someday and I was planning to use my reward for getting in a good school to visit Broadway. Never had I thought that it might leave before my (possible) trip. I am devastated but still glad I got to experience the show in someway while it’s running. Hell, the first thing I said to @finding-an-angle (aka my very first tumblr bestie) was being excited about the movie. (Did NOT aged well tho lolll)

Thank you for all the memories, and who knows? There might be a proshot someday.

Sincerely, me @sincerely-us

(A little something as tribute)

[broadway-heere-i-come]

It's not much, but it's the best I could do on short notice

[snoopy-hollander]

I don't even know where to start with Dear Evan Hansen. I happened to be in New York this weekend and walk by the Music Box Theater and felt so many emotions. It was one of the first musicals I got into and I'm transported back to late 2020 whenever I listen to "Requiem." I didn't listen to all of the songs until 6 months later, but I still loved it. It's disappointing that a musical that has meant so much to me and so many others is closing on Broadway (but not the West End or touring productions quite yet), especially an original musical that wasn't an adaptation of anything. I was lucky enough to see it on tour, and I doubt I'll forget that day. Thank you Dear Evan Hansen, for giving me a love of musicals, dream roles I'll never get to play, and inspiring my imagination.

@sincerely-us

[adaricruz]

so deh is closing. redraw of this connor from 2 years back, i drew the first one right after i saw the show in san diego. just wanted him to resemble mike more.

[morg-among-the-stars]

Today “Dear Evan Hansen” closes on Broadway, which is sad to say.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is what got me into musical theatre, what helped me discover my queer identity, what helped through the unfortunate and tragic loss of a relative, and what helped me make so many great friends who I love with all of my heart.

I never got to see the show live and now I never can, but I know for sure that it’s legacy and message will carry on for years to come.

💙💙💙

[this-is-macy]

Today is Dear Evan Hansen’s last day on Broadway and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings.

May 1, 2022 was a good day and here’s why. On that day, I got to see Dear Evan Hansen on tour. I first found the show in 2017 when a couple of my favorite YouTubers started taking about it and covering some of the songs. I immediately knew that this was a show I had to see. I spent the next several years avoiding spoilers, and even the soundtrack, hoping that one day I could experience the show first-hand the way it was intended to be experienced—at the theater. Finally, after 5 long years of waiting, the show found me.

I will never forget the feeling. Sitting in a room with hundreds of strangers, all of us crying together, laughing together, feeling together. Hearing the words “you are not alone” and actually believing them, because the proof was right in front of me and right behind me and directly to my left and directly to my right. We all saw ourselves on that stage that day. All of us. And we were anything but alone. It was magical. A picture perfect afternoon.

I have never connected so deeply to a piece of art before. Ever. Dear Evan Hansen has given me the language to express my most complex emotions. It taught me that I’m not the only one who slams on the break before they even turn the key. It gave me hope that I could step into the sun. It convinced me that I still matter. And even when the dark comes crashing through or when I feel like letting go, Dear Evan Hansen is a constant reminder that I am me and that’s enough.

Shows end all the time. I know that. But why is this one hitting me so hard? I’ve been thinking a lot about that and I think a big reason is because Dear Evan Hansen is not just a show that people enjoy. It is a show that saves lives, a show that heals people, a show that connects people, a show that helps us understand each other. I can’t express how grateful I am to have gotten to experience it, and my heart hurts for those who may not ever have the chance to.

All this talk about endings, though, I think it’s important to acknowledge that the memories aren’t going anywhere. The memories are staying right here.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who made this show happen. The writers, the actors, the musicians, the crew, the fans—everyone. Dear Evan Hansen is one of the best gifts the world has ever received and I’m confident that its legacy will live on For Forever.

Sincerely, Me

[dear-evan-fansen]

Let's see if I can type through the tears.

Dear Evan Hansen pretty much singlehandedly got me through high school. It inspired me to get involved in theatre, which I ended up majoring in in college. It intoduced me to so many artists and performers I now look up to. It gave me a whole bunch of creative inspiration. And, most importantly, it gave me hope. Because of Dear Evan Hansen, I've learned to accept myself even in my lowest moments, and find ways to move forward when it feels impossible to take another step.

I've been through a lot these past 6 years. So many things have changed, and not all of them for the better. But one of the few constants I've been able to rely on is this show. I always found time to pass by the Music Box when I was in New York, even if I wasn't seeing the performance that day, just to be close to the place where my life changed. It's hard for me to imagine a future where that won't be possible anymore. But the message of this show has stuck with me all this time, and no matter what happens, I know it's not going anywhere.

Thank you, Evan. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[movedofacc-deactivated20221122]

Free day / Favorite memory @sincerely-us I think the only significant memory I have is how I got into DEH. Either way, I love the characters, and I have deep gratitude for the people who brought them to life for everyone. They will stay with me.

Keep reading

[ch-ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb]

Dear Evan Hansen, 

Today is going to be an amazing day, and here’s why: Because today you are you. And you have made my life so much richer. 

I wasn’t sure I was going to write anything about the Broadway closing of Dear Evan Hansen. But then… I did it anyway. 

I got into this show in March of 2017. It was a strange time in my life. It was my first year of graduate school. I had this job that was genuinely soul crushing. One of my best friends had just moved across the country. 

To put it mildly, I was straight up not having a good time back in 2017. I first properly heard about the show because Alex Lacamoire was being interviewed on NPR. I was like “ah, sweet, I like Hamilton.” And then they played a brief clip of Waving Through a Window…

So I listened to the soundtrack. And something about it just grabbed me by the throat. Within five days of listening to the soundtrack I had already found and watched the OBC boot and begun writing my first Dear Evan Hansen fic The Desperate Type. 

I’ve been writing fanfiction for decades, but I have never had a fic get the level of attention that TDT did. And with it brought this fantastic community of lovely people who made me feel like I was a part of something, made me feel like I belonged. 

A lot of things have changed for me since that day I first heard about the show. I’ve written literally over a million words of fic in this fandom. I’ve made some lovely and brilliant friends who are so talented that I want to cry. I’ve fallen both in and out of love with somebody I met because of the show. 

All of that happened. All of it happened before I ever even saw Dear Evan Hansen on stage. Honestly, I was starting to move away from the fandom a bit when my best friend and I decided to take a trip to NYC. And because he’s a good friend, my best friend decided we ought to buy a ticket. It poured the entire day of the show. I walked into the Music Box looking like a drowned, harassed rat, and yet one of the ushers in their blue striped tie told me they liked the shirt I was wearing. 

The show was everything I could have hoped. The boot does not do it justice. The film version simply doesn’t compare. The feeling of overwhelm, of loneliness, of desperation is something that I personally think only stage can capture. And capture it it did. 

Reader, I cried pretty much the whole way through Act II. I cried and I held my best friend’s hand and I took in all of the ways this show has changed me and all of the ways I am still the same. I also took in the people in the row in front of us who refused to keep their masks on because the ushers threatened to kick them out, which was both a real thing that happened and also a reminder that a whole pandemic has been happening for much of my involvement in this fandom. 

It was only a couple of weeks after I saw the show that they announced the Broadway closing, and I am so grateful that I got to see it without knowing how close I came to never having seen it. 

This show means a lot to me. And the Broadway closing is far from the end of the show and its legacy. I hope it means that our little fading fandom might grow brighter again as more folks are able to encounter it. 

And in the meantime, I’m grateful for the people I’ve met because of this show. I’m grateful for the warm welcome I have received, the learning I have done, and for the continued motivation to just keep going. 

Sincerely, 

Me

@sincerely-us

[growaswego]

in december 2019, when i went by myself to see the dear evan hansen tour, i took this video to capture the pre-show notification dings and chimes that soundtracks the audience’s wait. by this point, i had loved dear evan hansen for nearly three years, and i can’t quite put into words just how much seeing this show meant to me.

another (almost) 3 years have passed, and today, the show is closing on broadway. i was never fortunate enough to travel to nyc, but the friendships i have made from afar, the memories that have become a part of me, and the feelings i have felt and shared will always make up a huge portion of who i am and who i’ve become.

thank you, dear evan hansen. for everything.

{ @sincerely-us deh closing tribute, day 7: favorite memory }

[biscuitbakerbecca]

@sincerely-us Dear Evan Hansen closing tribute prompt: favorite song/favorite scene

Although Zoe is not my favorite character, Requiem is probably my favorite song. The pain she expresses through her song has always spoken to me since I discovered the show back in 2018.

Back then I was just a kid with parental issues, now I’m a depressed adult who still has parental issues—but I’m trying. Zoe’s feelings of how everyone expects her to be sad, and feeling anger in her brothers passing always resonated with me. I was never allowed to show anger as a kid, even when it was well deserved.

The movie and book also had good Requiem scenes in my opinion, I like watching Zoe visually give up and stop controlling her life, and I also like seeing how Connor doesn’t resent her anger. At least not fully. Zoe doesn’t like second guessing her pain, but the world around her expects her to be a shell of her former self. It’s beautiful to see her true expressions.

So anyway, as a send off to the show from the small community of deh fans I built while in high school, I give you me singing Requiem in front of the majority of my home town:

[bemorekleinman]

day 7 of the @sincerely-us DEH closing tribute: favorite memory*

*combined with an implied bit of belonging and getting back up from the days I missed

title: A Very Lengthy Narrative of My First Visit to the Music Box Theater, or alternatively, I Wrote This For an English Assignment and I’d Like to Reuse It Because It’s Really Not That Bad, In My Opinion

Keep reading

[lexadoodledoll]

5 years ago today (August 18th 2022), I had the privilege to see this show on Broadway. It was my first time on a plane. It was my first time in NYC. It was my first time seeing a Broadway show. I was an anxious teen, graduating high school, feeling truly seen for the first time—by this musical. It was there for me when I needed it most, and not only that, it introduced me to this amazing community and friends I still talk to, to this day.

A lot has changed in my life since then, but Dear Evan Hansen still means the world to me. Its messages about grief and self acceptance still ring true and echo in my heart daily. It is genuinely hard for me to put into words the impact it’s had on my life, the mantras I repeat to quell my doubts, the positive effect it’s had on my self image. The way it creatively motivated me gave me the means to improve my art enough to be able to execute this painting I’ve had swirling in my mind since I first took the photograph I used as reference myself.

It may be closing soon, five years and a month after I first saw it in person, but I will keep all that it has given me forever. I’ll hold on, and I’ll keep going until I see the sun. 💙

[nostalgicbones]

@sincerely-us DEH broadway closing tribute day seven: favorite memory

[corner-murfee-deactivated202301]

goodbye dear evan hansen.

my little post.

dear evan hansen is closing, for broadway that's tomorrow and for the west end its the 22nd of october. but it's going either way. soon there will be no casts with connor on them, no blue polos and no autumn smile apple orchard. and thats okay. this is a sort of tribute post and if you think its weird literally leave idc. anyways here you go:

i cannot even express how important dear evan hansen is to me, i think to so many of us because we all feel the same no matter who we are. we can all truly connect with at least one character and understand how they feel, allowing us to truly figure out how we feel.

for me that character was connor murphy, i have struggled and still am with a lot of things, finding this show really showed me that i wasn't alone, i have thought about connor and the show every day, occasionally crying to every single song, i think about it all and i keep going.

i have never loved anything more and however stupid that might sound i will miss it, it's been a huge part of my life and i am never going to forget what i felt when i came out of that theatre six weeks ago, i could see how meaningful it was to every single person around me, we were all crying, we were all feeling something no matter what that was.

i think it brought me and my mother closer, i think she might be closer to understanding how i feel and now i understand how she does, she told me that she can relate to cynthia and heidi and i understand that, she goes through everyday still not really knowing how to do this. we all do. so, does anybody have a map?

i know they'll never see this but i want to thank every single person who has ever contributed anything to dear evan hansen, every edit, every song, every character, everything. i want to thank so many people for making my life so much more than it was before.

sincerely, me

@sincerely-us

[andreauxminyard]

in may of 2021, dear evan hansen found me in the funniest way possible— my wife telling me a game of telephone esque idea of the plot. i listened to the soundtrack and immediately got brain worms so bad that it was all I thought about for the next year and a half.

since discovering DEH, I've drawn SEVENTY-FOUR pieces of art and written 72k+ words of fic. i have made new friends that I never would have found without this show. I finally saw the show on broadway a week before its closing and I felt just as alive as the first time I heard the soundtrack from start to finish

on this, the eve of dear evan hansen closing, I can't help but feel bereft but also so grateful of everyone I've connected with over the last year and a half.

here's to all the high schools that will now be able to buy the rights put on this show :P

I love you all so much. I hope you've been found.

[zoe-murphy-is-my-wife]

So... dear Evan Hansah is closing. I- don't really know how to feel.

On the one hand, I've only known about this musical for a few month, and it really shouldn't mean that much to me. But the thing is, it does. It means so much to me. It became apart of my personality, and I don't think I could go back to living without this musical without changing a fundamental part of who I am today.

These characters, these actors, this fanbase, this story, they made my life better. They let me express emotions deep in me that I wasn't able to express before. It let me feel sad, and happy and happy to be sad (lol) and angry and defensive and excited, and so much more.

Is it the best musical out there? Probably not. Is it my favourite? Not really. But it was special to me. It's the musical that made me feel the most. Heck, you will be found is the only song that made me actually cry from any musical. It made me feel like I belonged somewhere at the hardest point in my life.

This whole musical, and everyone who worked on it or watched it made me feel like I belonged. Like I mattered. Like I wouldn't just dissappear. Like that if I was falling someone would be there to lift me off the ground. It gave me hope and it gave me something to lash onto.

So- thank you Dear Evan Hansan.

Thank you Cynthia Murphy for being there while I cried over how messed up my family seemed to be, and reminding me that every family can be messed up, and that it's important to find the good and normal in those moments of chaos.

Thank you Larry Murphy for reminding me that parents can make mistakes too, and that they're trying to do what's best for us. Thank you for showing me that parents do their best, and that I should be there for my parents just as much as they are for me.

Thank you Heidi Hansan for showing me the strength of a mother's love. For showing me that even when everything seems so big, and you feel so small, things will get better.

Thank you Connor Murphy, for showing me that everyone, even the people in the background, are struggling, and I should do my best to be there for them. That I should do my part so that no one is forgotten.

Thank you Jared Kleinman, for reminding me to laugh when stuff are shitty, for making me smile when thing are hard, bad, or rough. For reminding me to be a good friend, even when it's hard. That my friends only need to say the word, and I'll be there.

Thank you Alana Beck, for showing me that even when my mental health is getting me down, I can still make a difference, and I can still make peoples day better just by saying hey, or waving to them across the hall.

Thank you Zoe Murphy, for showing me that I should love and rsspect myself and not compromise that ever. That I should be kind to the people around me, but also not take anyones shit.

Finally, thank you Evan Hansan, for being there for me through the hardest time of my life. You were one of, if not the most, relatable character I've ever had the great fortune to meet. You're imperfect, but you try to help the people around you. You had to deal with so much shit in your life, but you still did all you can to be there for your mom. You lied and did truly horrible stuff, but you also tried to help, and in the end you did end up helping, both the Murphys, and me. You inspired me to write, you make me want to put myself out there, you make me cry and scream and laugh and I wouldn't be here without you. Thank you.

@sincerely-us