Student Blog: The Sun as Your Spotlight

After the sometimes difficult, sometimes depressing winter, it is always nice to refresh, reset, and bloom as spring begins. This spring, I have shifted my focus from the dark, cold of winter to the literal and metaphorical brightness of spring. The world can be so heavy, especially as a college student with seemingly endless, compounding assignments and worries, and I’ve decided this year that, rather than dwell on my own anxiety and stress, I am trying to focus more on the joy and light around me. I constantly remind myself to keep my stress in perspective. By reminding myself that, although many difficult things are happening in the country and the world, I am lucky to be chasing my dreams, I am able to be my best self in both personal and academic ways. 

To fully embrace spring and stop to smell the flowers (literally), I have been consuming media that brings me happiness and adopting hobbies I genuinely enjoy. These can be big things like writing plays or traveling, but they can also be little things that bring light, as small as getting an iced tea after class from my favorite coffee shop, or taking 5 minutes a day to sit outside and enjoy the warmth.

As a New York college student, I am very lucky to be exposed to many different artistic opportunities in the city, and as the season resets, so do I as I try to explore new things. I am an avid theatergoer, and although I might not be seeing as many shows as I used to, I am trying to see more new-to-me projects and be exposed to new stories and performances. I have seen a few so far that I really enjoyed, particularly Broadway’s new musical “Schmigadoon!” and film adaptation musical “The Lost Boys.” Watching new (or new to the stage) works brings me immense joy and allows me to learn more about the process of developing shows from source material to stage, especially in previews. It is never lost on me how amazing it is to get a glimpse into a production’s process, and I was lucky enough to attend the first previews of both of these shows, which allowed me to see theatrical development in a new light. 

Something else that I’m focused on during this spring reset is how I interact with the campus around me. With the nicer weather, I have been making more of an effort to sit outside and read, crochet, or get involved on campus. This is something that I have been meaning to do, but winter made motivation difficult, so I decided to try to treat my campus as a stage of sorts this spring, where everyone has their own track and character, reminding myself that others are paying less attention to me than I think, and trying to be less scared to meet new friends. 

Theatrically, I am very much immersed in my theatre coursework for my history and producing classes, as well as working in the costume shop for my lab requirement, which has allowed me to be a small part of the productions that my school puts on. Currently, our two campuses are both producing Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice in completely different productions, which is going to be really interesting. I am very excited to see both productions. 

Finally, with this reset, I have challenged myself to read a book or play a week that pertains to my aspirations in the theatre industry, to be more immersed. So far, this has been going very well, and I have really enjoyed the texts I have read. In particular, I very much enjoyed Suzan Lori-Parks’ “In the Blood” and reading the script for Kimberly Bellflower’s “John Proctor is the Villain,” both of which were moving and motivated me to think more deeply about theatre as an art form. 

This spring, I am trying to treat the sun as my spotlight, bringing me new joy and new opportunities. It is my hope that, by learning and growing as a theatre student and artist, I will prosper as I enter this next part of the year.