I’m one month away from celebrating my second year in New York. Do you know what else I’m going to celebrate? The fact that I get to stay in my tiny, yet peace-filled, Brooklyn apartment for another year. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but an annual move has become somewhat synonymous with my life for over a decade now. I’ll spare you the details, but in addition to staying put, another huge blessing/miracle is that I will be paying LESS than what I started out paying!
This past year has been filled with hard work, creativity, failures, laughter, adventure and lots of emotions. I’ve been enrolled in a two-year acting conservatory program in Manhattan since September 2015. It’s hard to believe that I will finish the program in a month and half. I’ve been pushed creatively and emotionally beyond what I thought my capacity was, and lived to tell the tale. It hasn’t been easy or necessarily fun for that matter. However, I believe this program is exactly what my life needed. My current scene (for class) is an excerpt from Tennessee Williams’, The Glass Menagerie. I spend most of my free time dissecting the character of Laura Wingfield. Bringing her to life this past month has been my favorite experience to date in classroom 803 on Monday and Thursday evenings. I’ll tell you more about it the next time I see you. We are working on monologues as well which has it’s own set of challenges, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn.
As far as how I make money, I’m working odd jobs as often as I can which sometimes makes for long days. The good news is, there’s a lot of hustle in this city. Many people are chasing big dreams and have a lot of ambition, so I often feel like i’m in good company on those long days/weeks. Let me be clear, I have bad days and get frustrated by the momentum. Overall though, I will never ever regret this time in my life.
FOR FUN:
In entertainment news, I recently watched the 2016 movie, A Monster Calls. Most of you have probably not heard of the movie or novel it’s based off of (by Patrick Ness), but if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it. I’d describe it as a kids movie for adults, dealing with the subject of grief through the eyes and mind of a young boy. Grief translates though, no matter the age. It’s a beautiful movie and score. It will come as no shock to those who know me that i’ve seen Beauty and the Beast twice in theaters. I thoroughly enjoyed the escape with characters and songs that delight me to the core. The tv show i’m hooked on at the moment is Veep and I devoured Big Little Lies. I’ve been noncommittal to books lately, so i’ll give a shoutout to the S Town podcast which had me hooked within minutes.
I will be back with an update for May. Thank you for reading!
Love,
SS