My Path to Academia.

Today was my first day as a non-CCM student. And it was weird.

Real weird.

I woke up at 8:00 this morning for my first 10:00 class. I did this for tres reasons.

1) I needed to shower which would mean blowdrying of the hair. How I wish I were a boy sometimes.
2) I wanted to have a healthy, hearty breakfast before I began my first day on My Path to Academia.
3) I had an awful nightmare that was keeping me up and I figured now was just as good a time as any to start my day.

**Noted: The CCM Drama Department still has my coffeemaker from Boards. I neeeed you, coffeemaker. If any of my acting lovelies are reading this and could maybe retrieve this for me one day, I would be grateful.**

So, I showered, got dressed (not in my originally planned first day of school outfit I might add, the Cincinnati weather was disappointing), and stopped at the dining hall for a bagel and coffee. I left about 20 minutes early armed with my number two pencils and notebooks to get to my class because I had NO idea where any of these buildings were. I have been occupying the same side of UC's Campus since the beginning of the year and rarely had time or need to travel outside of it. Luckily, I found all of them pretty easily thanks to the trusty campus map.

My first two classes went really well! I had Intro to Journalism and Interpersonal Communications. I was originally taking Intro to Mass Communications but it was a 3 hour long class on Wednesday evenings. This way, I'm done at 3 everyday and can hopefully get a job for weeknights. I was surprised by how much I liked the professors. My only 2 academic professors here before this were not so great, but these guys were really enthusiastic and welcoming. I can tell already that I'll really like both of the classes.

I have a break at noon followed by the CCM class that I'm still taking, Fundamentals of Directing. It was interesting being there today. For a moment, I almost forgot that I had even left CCM. All day in my academic classes I was sitting there thinking "Hm. So this is how the other half lives...".

Right now I kind of feel like I'm having an out of body experience and just watching myself as I go through this change. Its weird going on the other side of campus. It's weird having time to go to the gym. It's weird thinking "I need to shower but when will I ever have the time...oh wait...I do." It's weird having classes with completely different people.

Today really reminded me of how I felt in the first week at CCM. Totally weirded out. Not because it's actually a weird thing, but because it's new. And that's exactly what today was. SO new and different than I'm used to.

Acting is so familiar to me. Being in an Ensemble is so familiar to me. Academia is NOT familiar to me. Being surrounded by a million people I don't know is NOT familiar to me. My performing arts high school had like 400 students in it TOTAL.

I think for a long time people thought I was taking such a big risk by majoring in Acting in college, but to be honest, that felt like the safest option I could ever pick. I knew what to expect. Right now, I really have no idea what the rest of my quarter will be like, and it's scary to me. Not at all in a bad way, but I it doesn't feel like a "safe" choice or like I'm "taking the easy way out." It feels good because I'm learning about myself, and things I've never studied before.

For the first time in too long, I think about acting and I smile again. I look back at the way that I used to perform and the way that I've performed since I've been here and I swear sometimes it feels like two completely different people. Because one of them had heart, and one of them didn't. Everyone reacts differently to training. For me, I think I had an overdose from doing it for so long, that I forgot how to just BE.  But today, I remembered why I love it. Freeing myself from making it my only option, has made me remember why it ever was one. And that makes me really happy. Because at the end of this, I'll have every option.

For now, you can find me moseying down the Path To Academia :).

 

My new, adorable "Desk Scape" :)

Thanks for readin y'all.

'Til next time...




-C