Student Blog: One Last Time (maybe) (possibly) (probably no)

Hello Divas, Doll, Darlings, children, cats and dogs of all ages, we have returned once more. Once again we have packed up all our belongings (forgetting our shower shoes and extra conditioner) and made the age old pilgrimage back to the ye old College Town, in my case it’s Oneonta, New York…..and in a particularly dramatic twist of fate, I never left!

I spent the summer working a few different jobs in Oneonta. I was an Admissions Assistant and Tour Guide with the Office of Admissions, worked as a Student Service Agent in Oneonta’s newly reopened Student Service Center, and worked for my schools Technical Director and Costume Shop Manager to help move all of our basement storage onto our stage and then back down again. Who needs a gym membership anyway! I lifted boxes of shoes, old dressers,  and some couches all summer! I also got to see some local theater, which is always wonderful. I have become very fond of the Oneonta theater community, and have had the chance to meet some truly wonderful artists (one of them being my partner, who made his professional regional debut in the Glimmerglobe’s Hamlet). 

So after a summer spent hard at work, I went back to school mode and am once again hard at work! This semester I’ve lightened my load down to 12 credits (four classes) (don’t celebrate yet the other shoe is about to come crashing down from the sky’s upper abysses) which are: Advanced French, Advanced Poetry Workshop, Scene Study, and Theater History One. 

Seems like a silly little semester? HA YOU FOOLS I HAVE DONE IT AGAIN, YOU’VE BEEN HOODWINKED! 

In reality I am juggling 3 jobs, 4 classes, 2 shows, 1 independent study, and for 1 of the 2 shows I am a dramaturg, AND I am on the board of 3 different honor societies, run the social media for one of them, am organizing an alumni weekend for another, and one could say - I’m never going to sleep again. But also follow @sigmataudeltaoneonta on Instagram because I think I’m doing a fine job for someone who can’t draw a straight line. In this life we will contain multitudes of goshdarnit. 

September is the strangest month of the year, and before anyone asks, yes I am aware Halloween exists but just hear me out. September is the only month of the year which stacks time like Russian nesting dolls, turning each moment of that month into a conduit for the future. We forgot I was an English major didn’t we? September is entirely tragic. September is the first day of school outfits of years past, apples that have fallen off the tree and now lie bruised on the ground, it’s childhood you can’t get back and a future generation that is breathing down your neck, praying you’ll make it easy for them and just lie down to play dead. September calls you to take stock of what you have and what you haven’t got, to ask why you’re behind in the dreams you’ve dreamt all your life, and to realize just how minimal minimum wage is. That is September in the eyes of the college student, plus a lot of dead trees to carry around in the form of syllabuses. 

Now that we know where I’m at. Let’s find out what else I’ve done! Since we last spoke (so to speak) I’ve: 

• Become the president of Oneonta’s Lambda Omega chapter of The Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society 
• Went to my first county fair 
• Spoken at two different conferences
  • One for a paper on Soviet Animation
  • Another to present my anthology of biblical poetry
• Played a lot of Root 
  • A game of Woodland Right and Might! 
• Tried writing about 3 plays 
  • Just started a 4th last week
• Tried to get off book for The Firebugs (which performs in about 16 days) 
• Tried to pick audition rep for the next year and a half of undergraduate theater at SUNY Oneonta
• Got really into Jesus Christ Superstar

And that doesn’t even scratch the very surface of the last three months. Summer is great and all but it just seems like summer is the only season of the year which stacks time like Russian nesting dolls, turning each moment of that month into a conduit for the future….oh. So I guess the carousel never stops turning, the play goes on and goes wrong, we march on into the wilderness. Even if it feels like the end, you kind of realize that it's actually the beginning, more or less. 

There’s so much work to be done but also so much joy? Like hello? There’s so much joy happening I find myself happily overwhelmed with it. I finally had time to listen to the new Conan Gray album, Lin Manuel Miranda’s biography is coming out soon, the Hedda Gabbler movie trailer just dropped, and Andre De Shields is doing Tartuffe off Broadway. I’m in a show that has a message I really care about (Come see The Firebugs at SUNY Oneonta), it’s opening so very soon, my costume shoes are so wonderful, they make a funny sound when they hit the floor. How could I ever be downtrodden or overrun by my happily busy life when this is the joy it brings me. That's what keeps me grounded. There is so much joy if you look for it and make sure any stress you have will ultimately lead to joy. 

Stay tuned as I eventually dissolve into madness, but at least madness is stageable, ty Hamlet and ty William Shakespeare for that. As long as it's stageable, and I have my writing, and my theater, BRING IT ON! (wow that's a musical that I like).