critique reflection

I thought that Andrea Napoli's performance was outstanding. The way she set up her table with utensils wrapped in a hand-written letter, a wine glass filled with water, a bowl of salad with a heart-resembling bell pepper, 2 candles, some salt, and a name tag was an eery yet inviting display. So many elements of her display were symbolic of all of the different parts of her confession - the bell pepper being her dad's suffering heart, the pile of salt symbolizing a "race against time" but also that salty foods can lead to heart attack, the wine glass with water not wine, the 2 candles touching. It was so hard yet so easy to listen to Andrea read her letter. By hard I am referring to the pain that she feels and that she evoked upon all of us in the classroom. We were all able to actually feel this pain because her words were written then spoken so genuinely. I cried, I mean I was wiping away tears nonstop hoping no one would see, but I was losing it. So was Des!!! And I saw other girls crying too, boys just looking down. It was also hard for me because I am actually very fortunate to have my father. He is exactly what any daughter would want her father to be like. It's not that I felt guilty because I have this blessing and Andrea doesn't, but more like I feel bad and sorry that she always longed for a daddy who treated her like his princess because I know how incomplete I would be without one. I was crying for her and also for her dad, but mainly because I that so many girls feel this way and it's so unfortunate because a real father-daughter relationship is beautiful and so fulfilling. When I say easy to listen to, I am simply referring to the way she captured all of our attention for an extended period of time and still when it ended, I wanted to hear more.
There were a few weak confessions but the one that comes to mind first is the balloon popping. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but seriously, does ANYONE like the sound of a popping balloon???? Can ANYONE not cringe, startle, jump, scream, whatever when a balloon pops? I don't think so. I mean when it was going down and we all were sitting on our balloons and popping them, it sounded exactly like fireworks. So I was thinking shit, maybe she got burned by a firework or shot by a gun or her house got shot up in a drive-by or something. So then for the "confession" to be 'I can't stand the popping of balloons' or whatever, it was just like, that's it? That's not a confession, that's a universal truth. Given that this was the first piece and I knew my piece was an actual confession that I feel very strongly about and worked very hard to allow myself to tell people because it's intense, I was thinking in my head OH FUUUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK - freaking out that everyone's would be so trivial and mine would just be like BOOM and I would be a crazy weirdoo.