One Week In

("The Pro" -- one of my non-sexual crushes -- and "Disco")

One week done.

I've already learned stuff. And I'm already pretty darn tired.

I have favorites within my classmates. Which I wish I didn't, as we're supposed to be an ensemble... But I'm human. I like all of them, but I have non-sexual crushes on like 5 of them. They're such cool people.

Don't worry, I'm not in any danger of breaking the resolutions I made about not getting involved with people from my class. There are 7 males. 1 is married, 4 are in relationships, 1 is gay, and the last one is NOT my type at all. So making them all "As Good As Gay" hasn't been as difficult as I worried it might be.

("D-Train" -- another of my non-sexual crushes)

As one of my eagle-eyed readers pointed out (way to go, bFlat), there were only 11 people in my class picture, and I said my class is 12. Well, my class WILL BE 12. One of my classmates started school here two years ago and left because of some family problems. She is coming back to the program and will be joining my class, but she already had grades for her first semester, so she won't be getting down here until November or December. So my class is temporarily one member short.

My class is filled with intelligent, interesting people. I'm grateful for that. And I like each and every one of them as an individual. I really mean that.

But man, classes with all of them are going to be a challenge.

As is to be expected with any group of creative persons, we have a lot of large personalities. We are going to butt heads a lot. And we have a couple of people in the class who often pick up the role of devil's advocate. Things get tense sometimes.

As for me? I'm doing alright. Tuesday was a good day (but the first day of school always is). Wednesday was a bad day (I felt stupid the whole day). Thursday was a very, very good day (I kicked butt at everything, despite the day lasting 12 hours and being completely exhausted at the end of it). Friday was a very bad day (although it started off quite well... just ended abysmally).

Yesterday went bad during our last class of the day when there was a major schism in our class regarding our course of study. The professor (nicest man ever) was so flustered and upset by it that he actually ended class 15 minutes early. Yeah. Bad.

I came home and discussed the entire situation with my roommates. Being able to talk it out with them reminded me how fortunate I am to be living with students who understand the program, but who are in different classes than I am. They told me that I was looking at everything from a mature perspective and handling it well. It made me feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Luckily, my day did improve from there.

My grad school program works in conjunction with an "Adopt-A-Student" donor program. Depending on the level of contribution, some students have 1 donor, and some have 8. They're the reason we don't have to pay tuition. When I was originally looking at the program, I wasn't really sure what to make of it... But after speaking with the students, I lost all reservations. Basically, your donors become like a second family for you in Florida.

I met my donors last night, and they are WONDERFUL. I have two donors, who are a married couple. They're probably around 70, they never had children, and they're "low-profile" philanthropists. They're incredibly intelligent, down to earth, funny, and caring. They wanted to know everything about what I'm learning, and were so proud to be connected to my education. They love the arts. They want to know every time I'm involved in any production down here, even if I'm on tech crew, because they want to know what I'm up to and be able to discuss it with me later. How sweet are they?

I feel so blessed to have sponsors that I really connected with. I now have one more reason to succeed here: I want to make them proud.

I have a real weekend this weekend. It's the first time I've had a real weekend since... April, I think. Before I was in TnT. I've been completely lazy all day, and it has been glorious. I've spent more time singing showtunes at my roommate than being productive.

We're having a musical theatre workshop with a big impressive Broadway man at the end of the semester, so I'm trying to pick a song to sing for that. So far, here are my front-runner options (in case anyone cares):

- "I Get a Kick out of You", Anything Goes
*- "Stranger to the Rain", Children of Eden
*- "Here I Am", Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- "As We Stumble Along", The Drowsy Chaperone
- "Life with Harold", The Full Monty
- "Always a Bridesmaid", I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!
- "Mama Will Provide", Once on This Island
- "Happily Ever After", Once upon a Mattress
- "Hold On", The Secret Garden
- "Unexpected Song", Song & Dance
*- "Let Me Come Home", The Wedding Singer
*- "Old Fashioned Love Story", The Wild Party (Lippa)
- "One Hundred Easy Ways", Wonderful Town

(* = leading candidates... and yes, I'm a belter)

I think my roommate might end up singing "Stars & the Moon" from Songs for a New World, which I massively love. I've heard that songs from last year included "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" (Songs from a New World), "See, I'm Smiling" (The Last 5 Years), "There's a Fine, Fine Line" (Avenue Q), and "Old Man River" (Show Boat).

I'm going to try to convince my schoolmates to go out to karaoke with me tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'll get a few bites... I just really want to go out to a bar, not drink, but still have fun. And karaoke usually hits the spot for me... We'll see.

All in all, not a bad first week. I'm still thrilled to be here. I'm a little bit terrified, but I know that everything is going to work out in the end.


May the end be even better than the beginning.

~A~