Prologue: Feeling . . . Sentimental?
(inspired by the time we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Spanish)
- Loved
- Supported
- Successful
- Beautiful
- Hopeful
- Blessed
- A little sad
- Graduating
- Kicking butt with Noom
- Lovin' myself
1. ConGRADuations Class of 2020!
I love the Villanova Theatre community so much. And the Villanova community as a whole. Today was my virtual graduation and boy oh boy it was beautiful. It was definitely much more than I ever expected Villanova to do for us, and I was so grateful for all the hard work that clearly went into this ceremony. I knew I would cry. I mean, I spent 90% of my undergraduate ceremony in tears. Seriously, it made taking pictures afterwards very difficult, but we made it work. I'm gonna miss that. Not having graduation photos. I mean, of course, once I get my gown in the mail I can get all dressed up and take them, but it's not the photos of me I want.
It's the photos of me with my mom, my godmother, my Uncle George, my cousins Erica, Amanda, and Jenny, my Aunt Norma and Yvette. And, somehow even more importantly (no offense fam), I'm going to miss photos with my professors. The mentors who guided me through this program and continue to point me towards finding my place in this world. Maybe its because I know my family will be there when I come home and I don't know when I'll see Ed, James, Michael, Chelsea, Bess, Dr. Joyce, Parris, Janus, Elisa, Eilleen, Sharri, Jake, or anyone else from Nova again. And I can see it. I can imagine the perfect photograph in my mind of me and Ed shaking hands or me and Dr. Joyce standing side by side, red hair glowing. Or me crying when James wants a picture with me because he is a man who melts your heart with the amount of love he has for you and the world by saying things like "You are a miracle."
Yeah, I wanna be like James when I grow up too. And Ed. And Michael. And Valerie. And Chelsea. And Bess. And Parris. And EVERYONE. And I will. Because I've had the honor of being taught by them inside and outside of the classroom. I've grown to who I am today because of them. Inside and out. And I want to be the best me because of them. I want to grow to what I am not yet, as Father Peter so beautiful put it. I am so lucky. I am so blessed. I am so grateful. And yeah, sure, it might suck to graduate into a job market that might not exist --- but, what I love about the theatre world is WE DON'T GIVE UP. We are such a hopeful and passionate community that we refuse to give up on our world. We are persistent in overcoming adversity and push through for positive change in this world. And I get to be part of that community. Thanks, Villanova Theatre.
2. Together, Apart
OR
Two Best Friends in Undergrad
3. Firsts
Seriously. Now, I'm still under this weird impression that history matters and some day a historian will cry their eyes out knowing that I threw away some scrapbooks and programs of my past (not shows I was in but just the ones I attended), but . . . I hate to break it to you, historians, but I did that years ago when I moved out of Minnesota. So today was nothing compared to what I threw away then.
So what did I hold on to? Well, pictures for sure (except the ones with any traces of exes -- those went straight into the fiery pit of hell). Little things like the buttons with my picture on them from when I was a student-athlete, my high school graduation cap (go class of 2010!), all my old artwork, programs or posters or postcards from shows I was part of, my weird penny collection from Disney World a million years ago, all those Goofy plush I also got from that weird Disney trip many moons ago, a bunch of stuff from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (duh), my commonplace book, the scripts I used for shows I acted in, and a bunch of other random tiny things. But, I am doing my best to fit everything into my "hope chest" (my-I-wish-I-was-Harry-Potter-going-to-Hogwarts treasure chest) so that my mother doesn't have to lug around my whole life's scrapbook with her at all times.
Either way, I decided to pull out some future museum items above that I thought you future historians would appreciate. I was shocked that I even had them, but, then again, my hobby since elementary school was scrapbooking so are we really that surprised?