Leading with Cheer

Forgive me for being egotistical, but I believe that I am an asset to any group to which I belong. For example, I think my workplace will be a lot less interesting when I'm gone (although I'm pretty sure that only two of the people in my department have realized this thus far). And I think that my grad school class is going to be a more cheerful, energetic bunch because of me.

I think that in many ways, I can be defined as a cheerleader. And perhaps a cheery leader as well.

I come by it naturally, as my mother has the same gift/affliction. In fact, the DJs on her favorite online radio station (Martini in the Morning -- they play mostly standards, and my mother would be ecstatic if she knew that I was advertising them on my blog) refer to her as the station's Head Cheerleader. Whenever she sees a martini glass, she has her picture taken with it and sends it to them. Her automatic signature on any email she sends has a Martini in the Morning graphic on it. She even worked the station into our family's Christmas letter (no, I'm not kidding). She's a one-woman advertising campaign.

And, well, I'm the same way. I like to get people excited about things. I like to bring people together. And I'm not afraid to step up and take the helm. My mother taught me well.

The current students at the grad school to which I'll be matriculating this fall have started sending out "Welcome" e-mails to my class. So I decided to take some initiative; I turned into glue and began binding us all together.

First, I put everyone's e-mail addresses into my address book. Then, I used the Facebook friend-finder thingamajigger to befriend as many as I could find. And then, I sent them all an e-mail, introducing myself. Here is a portion of that e-mail:

My name is Angela. Some people call me Angela, some call me Aiea (which rhymes with Maya... but don't worry about having to spell or pronounce that. Angela works just fine). I'm 23. I grew up in Michigan (near East Lansing) went to Saint Mary's College in Indiana (it's the women's college that's across the street from Notre Dame), and I've been living in Chicago since fall 2006. I have two younger brothers who are in undergrad, and my parents live in Connecticut. I love to write (I'm working on a novel right now... it's seriously terrible, but it's a blast), I love to dance (often at inappropriate times), and I would be completely unable to function without music (and I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes).

I thought that was a good introduction to me. I tried to involve my personality and not just facts (hence all the parentheticals... I think they demonstrate my hyperactivity and ability to digress rather nicely). But I also didn't want to scare them off (too soon to give them a full dose of the insanity that is me). Hopefully, I struck a good compromise there.

My class is twelve students (seven guys, five gals). So far, six of them have followed my lead and composed their own introductory emails.

- Guy from D.C. who goes by the nickname "Thrill" and says, "I have a very different kind of personality, I have nothing but Crunk Juice inside of me almost ALL the time. I'm a little big ball of Crunk energy."

- California girl living in Texas who started her email with "Huzzah!" and went on to write, "I have strange taste in music and stranger taste in books... but I make a mean apple pie."

- A fellow who has lived in Manhattan all his life writes, "I was a competitive swimmer until I went into the LaGuardia "Fame" High School and fell in love with drama."

- A girl who started in the program two years ago, but left after a semester because of family troubles. She's starting again with our class. She writes, "I'm a red headed "Jersey Girl" through and through."

- Michigan guy who is "an avid reader", a "TV drama junkie", and says, "currently The Frames have stolen my heart."

- Another Michigan guy (side note: the Michigan guys went to undergrad together). This one writes, "I find foreign affairs really interesting, as well as anthropology, spanish lit and history." He started the email with "Yo dudes" and ended with "Rock on".


So I'm excited. Seems like a fun bunch. And like we're all different sorts. So that'll be fun. :)

You might have asked yourselves, "What are the odds that THREE Michiganders would end up in the same tiny MFA Acting program in Florida?" But here's the even weirder thing: I know there are already at least two Michigan students in the program (one is a second year, one is a first year). So 5 out of the total 32 students that will be there next year are from Michigan. Which means that along transportation equipment, cereal, and Christmas trees, thespians are clearly one of the best exports that Michigan has to offer.

I formed a facebook group just for our class. I figure it'll be nice to have a forum for figuring out all the things we might want to discuss. Five of us are in it at the moment.

The next mental debate I'll have on the grad school front has to do with my living situation. Three of the aforementioned future classmates expressed interest in finding a roommate. It's way cheaper to live with someone, and you can wind up with a bigger (and nicer) place as a result. But I don't know if I really want to be cohabitating with someone whom I'm going to be seeing in every class. There would be no escape.

And there's also the tiny little issue of applying. I STILL haven't lined up my recommendation letters. I'm not too worried, as I'm pretty sure I have until May... But still. Should probably get on that. I tried making a couple of calls today, but I ended up talking to the usual voicemails. Ah well.

Aside from trying to start the ball rolling on cohesion within my class and avoiding other grad school whatnot, I've also been pretending to be an adult. I actually did my taxes today. And you know what? It was totally painless. Piece of cake. I also edited a chapter in my novel (a good one, I thought. I was pretty happy with it). And I tried to clean my apartment. My mother tried to help give me a jump-start on it while she was here, but we didn't get all that far.

I started going through my makeup today, throwing things out. You wouldn't believe how much makeup I have. It's obscene. Particularly since I wear very little (often none) on a daily basis. No makeup case is big enough to hold all of it, so I actually bought a tackle-box at Wal-Mart several years ago. And, frankly, it barely fits in there. I might need to find something bigger soon.

Speaking of new things, I recently made myself a new book to write in. I already have a book for poetry I've written, a book for quotations, and a book for lists. Well, now I have a book for compliments.


I'm getting a lot better at accepting compliments than I used to be. And certain people in my life seem to be happy about that *cough, Brian, cough*. So I've decided I'm going to start writing them down. Besides, it'll probably be good for my self-esteem. I'll be able to look back on nice things people have said about me whenever I'm feeling as though I'm worthless.

(Ha! I was about to write that it'll come in handy next February when I'm going through Seasonal Affected Disorder, but then I realized... I'm going to be in FLORIDA! I won't have SAD next year!!! Woo-hoo!)

As one final thing to mention, I love Jenn. No, seriously, I love her. Remember when I guest-blogged for her? She actually sent me Thank You gifts!


Two scented candles (delightfully green, I might add), and a lovely notebook (I'm such a sucker for blank pages in pretty packages). And all this after she allowed me to write on her blog for a day! I feel like I should be sending HER a present, not the other way around. Anyway, thank you Jenn!

I now have the beginning of what I fear will turn into a wicked headache, so I've got to stop staring at my computer screen.


May you lead some cheers of your own.

~A~


P.S. I switched out my other plaid background for one with only two colors. Is it less busy? Or is it equally problematic? And is it less fun? I can't decide what I like and/or want.