The best summers of my youth were spent at French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, a summer camp in the Catskills where I "studied" theatre extensively. From ages twelve to nineteen, French Woods was home. I learned many, many valuable lessons there, lessons that I should really remember now that I'm studying theatre for real. Turns out, drama school and drama camp are a lot alike.

1. Theatre people can be pretentious, but they're wonderful.
2. Don't date actors.
3. Don't date musicians.
4. Don't be the subject of gossip if you can at all avoid it.
5. Do your homework. It's embarrassing when you don't have your reading done.
6. Belting showtunes at midnight will only earn you popularity points with a certain subset of the population.
7. Stage left is your left. Stage right is your right. Audience left is your right. Audience right is your left.
8. Vagina Monologues
9. You're in close quarters with those around you- you live together, you work together, you hang out together. Provided they don't suck (and few of them do, 'cause theatre people  are inherently awesome), you'll fall in love with your new friends very quickly. Keeping those relationships once you go home will be a challenge, but it is possible. Work hard, make it happen.
10. If the theatre gods don't give you what you want, make an opportunity for yourself.

Last year, when I was putting together my Central application, I went back and re-read my senior work project, to see if I could use it as a writing sample at my interview. I concluded that nobody should ever read that thing ever again. This week, I have a meeting with a potential PhD advisor, so I've been pouring over the Journal of Religion and Theatre archive (you know what's a great idea? Reading academic articles about esoteric plays and religion while sitting in a dark room at five o'clock in the morning after you've been drinking for ten hours straight. I highly recommend it), hoping to come up with an idea of what to talk about in said meeting. It occurred to me that I should probably take a look at my own stuff again, since I did spend close to a year of my life researching and writing that paper. I found it (thank you, Gmail Archive), and at about halfway through the paper, I think I might've judged myself a bit too harshly a year ago. It isn't perfect. Far from it, in fact, but for an undergrad who started from square one (My Adviser: "what do you know about the Protestant Reformation?" Me: Martin Luther nailed some stuff to a door."), it's a relatively impressive document. At least, I come off sounding kind of... smart.

I realize that sounds a little silly. I am smart. I know I'm smart. And now I sound pompous. Oh well. From time to time, it's nice to have a reminder. Two weeks ago, I had to turn in my first Central assignments. Writing them was exceptionally frustrating; even after having read a couple of previous papers, I felt like I had no idea what was expected of me. I stress out when it comes to assignments anyhow, so I was a total wreck. We don't expect to get those papers back for at least another month, and when I do get them turned back to me, I don't think my grades will be what I'd like. I didn't get a great grade on my Senior Work, but I wrote it. Forty-three pages in total discussing various bibles, theatre history, staging techniques, religious practices, and late-Medieval politics. Well done, twenty-three year0ld Amy, well done.