A Boy's Life : Elliot Lockshine

From A Christmas Story: The Musical to Lost in Yonkers, the seventh-grader at Westlake's Lee Burneson Middle School has made several appearances on stage at the Near West Theatre in Gordon Square Arts District since 2010. Elliot, who lives with his mom, dad and 15-year-old sister Madelyn, wants to travel to all 50 states before his 18th birthday. So far he's visited 10 states.

I guess I would say my best day was the day I was born, because if it wasn't for that day, then none of my other good days would have happened.

One of my worst days was when I got into a fight at school. A kid was telling me how acting is stupid and gay, because I like to act. I got really mad at him so I pushed him. We were in the line for lunch. This was in fifth grade. I pushed him and then he pushed me back, and we just kept wrestling until the teacher came up to us. She took me and him into the office, but he got out scot-free because I started the fight. The assistant principal kept me in the office for the rest of the day, and he called my parents. They were kind of upset at me, and it wasn't really fun. Then I got a morning detention, so I had to come into school early.

I'm not very good at focusing. I get really distracted. I struggle with making decisions, not necessarily good decisions. But my dad always talks to me about how I should learn to have more common sense, and he's right.

My hero is John Lennon from the Beatles because he just had this really relaxed, chill mood most of the time, and he was always calm. He would protest, but he wouldn't go crazy protesting. You know how a lot of celebrities these days are dying because of drug overdoses and they go crazy and stuff? He's one of those celebrities that just remained calm after the Beatles broke up. That day that he got shot was very sad. I really look up to him, because it's hard for me to remain calm. I just think that he's a great role model.