Miscellaneous Musings
The Firefly-themed production of Pirates of Penzance that I teched for at the beginning of the quarter is getting a reprise! Someone wants to set up a big new scholarship and as publicity for it (don't ask me what the logic of this is; I have no clue) they're paying us to run the show for another weekend, in June.
I got to see most of the cast and crew again today, as someone in the company held a party for Frederick's birthday. I love this company!
I actually worked on a show with a different group for the first time in two years - a production of Arsenic and Old Lace that wasn't actually associated with any formal theatre company. It was the Senior Project for Melissa and another drama major, and it was an incredibly small-scale production. They had six actors to play the 14 characters in the show (and they had copious cross-casting in addition to all the role-switching, which made it even funnier), Melissa and I (and the supervisor from the Drama Department, if you want to count him) were the entirety of the tech crew - she was Producer, Stage Manager, Lights, and Sound, and I was general backstage help (which involved an awful lot of helping guys in and out of dresses and bras), Props, and kind of Assistant Stage Manager - and the Director was in the cast. It was also a very minimal set, and consequently the shortest strike I've ever experienced; it only took around half an hour, which completely blows my mind. It was fun to work on a show with Melissa for once, since that almost never happens; between the the three of us our room has covered nearly every theatre group on campus, but while Sharon and I are on the same shows all the time, we have very little overlap with Melissa.
***
Current major themes in my poetry: dance, love, betrayal, identity, nature, the supernatural
I want to try to get in the habit of being in bed by around midnight, and then writing at least 100 words on WrittenKitten each night. I miss writing fiction. I haven't written practically any fiction since the beginning of the year. And I've written a fairly substantial volume of poetry, but I haven't actually completed/polished any poems except the ones for my Creative Writing course; the rest is pretty much just scraps.
My Creative Writing class also has an assignment to memorize and recite a poem of at least 14 lines. Because I am insane, I of course had to pick a poem that's something like 200 lines. But it's so pretty! (The poem in question is "Kortirion Among The Trees", a Tolkien poem from The Book of Lost Tales, Part I. Though, I do at least have a backup plan in case that turns out to be too ambitious for the time I have.
***
The fire alarm in my dorm went off yesterday morning, and then no less than three times this morning. I am seriously annoyed.
***
This post on invisible disabilities really struck a chord with me. It's absolutely amazing and everyone needs to read. Passing Means...
And I'd like to submit one addition of my own - Passing means not knowing who struggles with the same things and therefore not being able to share support or resources.
I remember a few years ago posting about feeling isolated and being afraid my friends secretly disliked me, and goldjadeocean commented basically "Yeah, that's social anxiety, I get that too, it's helped me to tell myself/my friends that it's an irrational fear and I know it's irrational but it's going to affect how I act." Just hearing that helped so incredibly much.
And there are so very many people passing for neurotypical in one way or another. Sometimes I almost think "neurotypical" doesn't actually exist. When I was working my way out of my first episode of depression, I started coming out to people about it, and a startling number of people (including the majority of my close friends) then confided in me that they'd had their own struggles with mental health issues.
There's an organization on my campus focused on raising awareness of and fighting stigma against mental health issues. They hold panels in dorms across campus where people share their experiences; my best friend was a panelist on one of them my Freshman year during my first episode of depression, and it was that panel that gave me the courage to come out to my friends. I've been lucky enough to have friends who were really supportive, and it actually brought me a lot closer to many of them. I've also found a lot of support from my school - professors have been very willing to work with me, and there are a number of very helpful resources.
I've since been a panelist for that same organization several times (most recently last week). And it's hard - whether on a panel or in person interactions, every time I share my story it's hard and it's scary. But I keep telling it, because I think it's a really important thing to do. Because there are so many other people out there who are passing, and they need to know they're not alone. Maybe hearing it will help them find the courage to confess their own experiences, to me or someone else. Or maybe they'll remain silent, but hopefully hearing it will still make their burden easier to bear. I don't know who of the people around me are carrying their own invisible disabilities - but some of them almost certainly are. So I share my message with everyone, so those of them who need to hear it will: you're not alone and there is support.
I got to see most of the cast and crew again today, as someone in the company held a party for Frederick's birthday. I love this company!
I actually worked on a show with a different group for the first time in two years - a production of Arsenic and Old Lace that wasn't actually associated with any formal theatre company. It was the Senior Project for Melissa and another drama major, and it was an incredibly small-scale production. They had six actors to play the 14 characters in the show (and they had copious cross-casting in addition to all the role-switching, which made it even funnier), Melissa and I (and the supervisor from the Drama Department, if you want to count him) were the entirety of the tech crew - she was Producer, Stage Manager, Lights, and Sound, and I was general backstage help (which involved an awful lot of helping guys in and out of dresses and bras), Props, and kind of Assistant Stage Manager - and the Director was in the cast. It was also a very minimal set, and consequently the shortest strike I've ever experienced; it only took around half an hour, which completely blows my mind. It was fun to work on a show with Melissa for once, since that almost never happens; between the the three of us our room has covered nearly every theatre group on campus, but while Sharon and I are on the same shows all the time, we have very little overlap with Melissa.
***
Current major themes in my poetry: dance, love, betrayal, identity, nature, the supernatural
I want to try to get in the habit of being in bed by around midnight, and then writing at least 100 words on WrittenKitten each night. I miss writing fiction. I haven't written practically any fiction since the beginning of the year. And I've written a fairly substantial volume of poetry, but I haven't actually completed/polished any poems except the ones for my Creative Writing course; the rest is pretty much just scraps.
My Creative Writing class also has an assignment to memorize and recite a poem of at least 14 lines. Because I am insane, I of course had to pick a poem that's something like 200 lines. But it's so pretty! (The poem in question is "Kortirion Among The Trees", a Tolkien poem from The Book of Lost Tales, Part I. Though, I do at least have a backup plan in case that turns out to be too ambitious for the time I have.
***
The fire alarm in my dorm went off yesterday morning, and then no less than three times this morning. I am seriously annoyed.
***
This post on invisible disabilities really struck a chord with me. It's absolutely amazing and everyone needs to read. Passing Means...
And I'd like to submit one addition of my own - Passing means not knowing who struggles with the same things and therefore not being able to share support or resources.
I remember a few years ago posting about feeling isolated and being afraid my friends secretly disliked me, and goldjadeocean commented basically "Yeah, that's social anxiety, I get that too, it's helped me to tell myself/my friends that it's an irrational fear and I know it's irrational but it's going to affect how I act." Just hearing that helped so incredibly much.
And there are so very many people passing for neurotypical in one way or another. Sometimes I almost think "neurotypical" doesn't actually exist. When I was working my way out of my first episode of depression, I started coming out to people about it, and a startling number of people (including the majority of my close friends) then confided in me that they'd had their own struggles with mental health issues.
There's an organization on my campus focused on raising awareness of and fighting stigma against mental health issues. They hold panels in dorms across campus where people share their experiences; my best friend was a panelist on one of them my Freshman year during my first episode of depression, and it was that panel that gave me the courage to come out to my friends. I've been lucky enough to have friends who were really supportive, and it actually brought me a lot closer to many of them. I've also found a lot of support from my school - professors have been very willing to work with me, and there are a number of very helpful resources.
I've since been a panelist for that same organization several times (most recently last week). And it's hard - whether on a panel or in person interactions, every time I share my story it's hard and it's scary. But I keep telling it, because I think it's a really important thing to do. Because there are so many other people out there who are passing, and they need to know they're not alone. Maybe hearing it will help them find the courage to confess their own experiences, to me or someone else. Or maybe they'll remain silent, but hopefully hearing it will still make their burden easier to bear. I don't know who of the people around me are carrying their own invisible disabilities - but some of them almost certainly are. So I share my message with everyone, so those of them who need to hear it will: you're not alone and there is support.