I woke up for my last first day of school. Got ready. Had some coffee. The usual. I walked into Forbes and after a week at another school with different theaters, I was overyjoyed to be back home. I met up with Christina and we talked about our breaks. We took a last first day of school picture and headed up to senior seminar.
117. This was the first thing Zachary Dorsey said to us at the start of class. He asked us what this number meant to us and a fellow classmate said, "the number of days until graduation." He asked us to write what that number meant to us-what words came to mind, how it made us feel- what we wanted to accomplish in this time frame, and why we took the course (besides the fact that it was requirement for graduation).
We then read an article on the word busyness. I really enjoyed the article because it said if you stop saying you are busy, you feel less busy. This simple statement blew my mind. And after a week of trying it out, I can say it actually words. I have felt way less stressed and a lot happier than in the semesters where my answer to everything was always- "I'm busy."
My next "class" was the General Education Theatre course with Meredith and Ben. I, along with 9 other theatre majors, are teaching assistants for the course of around 300 students. The first day was full of introductions and general syllabus information, but I am looking forward to this class a lot. After class, a few of the T.A.'s went and ate lunch at Festival (#grilledcheese).
After work I ran and got some coffee before my first night of rehearsal as an assistant director for Guys and Dolls. Chris and I started by making Matos his book and when we finished we went to sit next to him as he was staging. And then the craziest thing happened. He asked for our opinion. And then he let us stage bits of the scene. On the first night of rehearsal. I am really excited for the rest of the process and am so thankful Matos is giving us this opportunity to learn and grow.
Molly and I then dropped off some friends at their respective houses post rehearsals. I was checking my email when I finally received an email I had been waiting for all weekend: I had been accepted to the Stage Management Mentorship Program at USITT. This means I will get to help run the USITT Conference this year and I will receive a stage management mentor who has worked professionally in the field. Only 12-14 people get picked in the country and I am incredibly excited to receive this once in a lifetime opportunity.
The (last) first day of school was one of the best ones ever and I'm looking forward to what is going to be a whirlwind of a semester.
Until next time-just keep swimming <3
Chelsea