It's Been Awhile...Catching Up...

This is embarrassing to admit, as I consider myself rather tech-savvy for a lay-person, but I got a Mac in August and, since everything's a little different on a Mac, I couldn't find my way back into my blog. But here I am, at long last, and a lot has changed.

I am now at Emerson, in grad school, and time flies when you're getting educated! It's been very refreshing, after 20+ years in the corporate world - where I was frequently told "You're not being paid to think!" to be with people who actually care what I think. It's a very different experience than college -- partly because college, much as I loved Sarah Lawrence, was largely to please my parents ("We're paying - you're getting the degree WE tell you to!" -- my mother has denied this conversation took place, but then again, she thinks Norman Rockwell was a photo-journalist). I had wanted to take a pure Theatre program; they wanted me to take Liberal Arts. They were paying, so I took Liberal Arts. With a focus in Theatre, I was able to slip that in fairly easily. And my transcript - which was not as bad as I thought it would be(having had to submit it for grad school, I thought I'd get a copy for myself), shows me to be a student who thought that anything that wasn't theatre was a waste of time. Still, I managed an average that was between B+ and A-.

But grad school is different - not just because I am choosing my focus, now I am a different kind of student. Before, I was easily intimidated and wouldn't speak up in class, even in the theatre classes. I felt a tremendous sense of scarcity about the opportunities in theatre at SLC. Now, I'm less passive, more entrepreneurial. Having done several Off-Off Broadway projects in New York, not much frightens me. I admit, I get twinges of fear in class discussions (will they think I'm stupid?) but that's just me and I no longer let it stop me. I used to want to be the best, now I want everyone to win. It's a different focus.

So...a lot has changed. I incorporated my business: Outspoken! Inc. on July 14th (Bastille Day!) and joined BNI, a networking organization. I started my grad program at Emerson in September and am writing my first term paper. Ever.

(Don't ask me how I managed this, I have no idea how, but I got through high school and college without ever writing a real paper. Yes, even at Sarah Lawrence. Oh, I wrote papers, but they were not very good or very structured.)

This one is different. I'm different. I'm not leaving it to the last minute for one thing- even though it's not due till December 15 or so, I'm already eight pages into it. And I'm willing to admit I need help - I've been to the school's Writing Center twice.

So for my Drama Theory class I'm up to my ears in O'Neill. For my Directing: Theory and Practice, I'm directing Beckett's Words & Music as my semester-end project. And I've had two coaching clients through BNI.

Also - saw Basil Twist's Petrushka but I'll write about that separately.