Creative Writing 422 (Jan 9, 2012)

This year has been a bit of a whirlwind. I never expected to be in college for five years. Many people have legitimate excuses for claiming the title Super Senior (i.e. transfer students, changing majors, education major, etc...). The only thing I have close to an "excuse" is a stack of bad luck, anxiety attacks over financial aid, and being stupid enough to only visit an advisor two times. You're allowed to cringe at my lack of common sense.

Even though this year was unexpected, I don't regret it one bit. I'm a theatre arts major, which means I need to be heavily involved in theatre to graduate. As a freshman, I came in doe-eyed and with hopes of becoming the next Barbara Streisand...maybe a bad example. There was only one problem with my dreams of being an actress: auditioning is terrifying. Knee weakening scary. You have to go into a small room filled with intimidating strangers whose only job is to judge you and decide if you're good enough. It's a little like what I'd imagine the baby boys of Sparta to feel like as they were inspected, their fate either to be thrown over a cliff, or kept and raised as a soldier. That may be an exaggeration. However as you stand in that hallway, your palms sweating, feverishly running through the prepared monologue in your head, hoping not to vomit all over the stage manager, it surely feels like you're being shoved over a cliff.

Needless to say, I wasn't involved the first two years of my college career. I took classes quietly and got through it without a single connection in the theatre department. Then I found out I had to crew on two shows simply to graduate. So I found my IN. I signed up for set crew on the children's show, "The Prince, The Wolf, and the Firebird" that very day. I was Set Crew Head of the next show here at EMU, "Nora/Julie."

From then on, it's been a series of fortune and happenstance which landed me paying jobs in the scene shop, making digital programs to be projected before all of the shows, and now as the graphic designer for the theatre department. Though my current job is in the office creating art (something that has always run through my veins), my real passion is lighting design. I love working with the instruments even though sometimes I'd take real pleasure in throwing them across the room. My mentor described lighting design as, "Sculpting with light." Which is a perfect way to describe creating light on a stage. And since I've always been rubbish at sculpting with clay, this is an EXCELLENT substitute.

Writing has always been a huge part of my life. I think the passion was really ignited in fifth grade. I remember scribbling the beginnings of "novels" on notebook paper. I say novels with a grain of salt. The earliest story I remember starting was about a couple who met and fell in love because of their mutual affection for Diet Pepsi. Luckily, that year I did actually find that I had a knack for writing. I won the Michigan Writing contest for my essay on Rosa Parks. Ever since I've never stopped forming sentences in my head and pouring them onto paper. I constantly have stories form in my mind, though most of them amount to nothing.

Since coming to college I've started experimenting with different genres. I've written a few sound poems, a manifesto, short stories, and a multi-media Kathy Acker's "Blood and Guts in High School" type piece. I'm sure this is much more information than you'd wanted, and I must apologize for rambling on. I'm excited to keep experimenting, learning, and developing my writing. It's something I want to continue to do for the rest of my life.