I've discovered that being 19 is, at least for me, quite the adventure. To employ the use of another metaphor, it's like having a favorite shirt suddenly shrink in the wash and it doesn't fit you like it used to. It's tighter here than it usually is, looser there, at a funny angle over there. So you have to readjust everything and compensate with a different sweater or something. My life is a shrunken shirt. Oprah says you should redesign yourself every 5 years. Due to the ever-changing circumstances in my life, I'm urged to redesign myself approximately 5 times PER year. It's a little tiring, but more exciting than anything else.
One thing contributing to my slight disconcertedness is the fact that there has actually been a measurable increase in the hormones buzzing around this campus. I should have seen it coming, but everyone around here suddenly got either engaged or gained a significant other! So weird! Welcome to spring at BYU-Idaho. Check it out, here's a list of all those who are currently in the following categories:
ENGAGED:
Brady
Andrew
Claire
Bonnie
Aleisha
Grant
Matt
Rachel
GAINED A SIGNIFICANT OTHER:
Alexis (I think)
Brant
JD
Melissa
Rachel
Scott (related to the "I think")
Mattie (?)
Neil (?)
Ryan
Kara
I always thought it was just a funny cliche to laugh about "spring" at a church school, but au contraire. IT IS COMPLETELY 100% TRUE. There are couples every-flippin-where you go. Those without significant others around here make up the single (no pun intended) largest body of the most sexually frustrated people on the planet. Come to think of it, those WITH significant others should still be just as sexually frustrated as those without, but I'm not going to attempt figuring that one out.
(Allow me to interrupt you with a tangent, Liz. Oh, go right ahead, Liz. Thank you, Liz. I would simply like to state that I greatly enjoy the Jamie Collum album I'm listening to at the moment. There you are, carry on, Liz. Excellent point, Liz, and thank you. Oh no, thank YOU.)
By way of announcement, after much prayer, thought, fasting, and talking, I've made my plans for this summer. I am living here in Rexburg with some friends and working my bum off to make as much moolah as I possibly can.
By way of another announcement, "OUR TOWN" OPENS NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's so soon. This show seemed to have gone by faster than any other show I've ever been in throughout my entire career. (I thought about saying "throughout my life" but "career" sounded much cooler and much more proffesional.) It's also been one of the most fulfilling experiences of this year. I've learned so much, playing Mrs. Webb, and I know the learning process is far from over. I've also made some wonderful new friends in the cast. Allow me a moment of indulgence to gush about all the fabulous people I know. Lizzy, also known as Elizabeth, B, or "Shannon" is one of the funnest, most caring people I've ever known. She's so individual, and so madly in love with the theatre that she pours herself into whatever she does for it. Jesse Thorsen is another friend I've made, which is strange, because we go way back to the Medford and Central Point Stake dance days. He went to North High, and got off his mission about a year ago. So we've been hanging out in Medford Singles Ward for quite awhile, but never became very good friends until doing this show together. I thought he hated me for the longest time, but I've come to discover that Jesse Thorsen is one of the most opinionated people on the face of the planet, but I can't help but love him for it. It's just who he is, take it or leave it. He has enough redeeming qualities to endear him to me. Steven Beckman, who for the longest time I mentally called "Rick Moranis" is the most flirtatious preemie I've ever met, but also funny, considerate, and a fun guy to talk to. Add another Jason to the list, but put this one on the top, because Jason Kramer is one of the greatest people on the face of the earth! I can't even express my anger at the fact that we all just got to know this kid and he's going to be in the Brazil MTC next month. Jason is one of the funniest, most intelligent, witty and spontaneous people I've ever met, and everyone adores him. And rightly so.
I'd also like to add that I'm wearing the largest wig in theatrical history for this show. Those of you who will see this show won't recognize me. You know how Anne's hair is in "Anne of Avonlea"? Just large, and poofy, and all piled up on top of her head. That's what my wig looks like. And it's red.
I've just now decided to go for a walk. I love you all, and good night!
1 comment:
Hey Lizzy, have you ever had the experience where you stay up all night and into the morning and finally come to the hour at which point you can't determine what you did "yesterday" versus "today"? I certainly have, and I will let you know that it's worth it. This one particular time I did it and had a most epiphanical (yes, made up, but I like it) and majestic experience. A close friend and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning baking and dancing to classic big band and Latin music- Tito Puente and Bette Midler?, then talking to the neighbor gals about living and achieving in a small, sheltered "bubble," watching a silly, hopeless romantic Mormon comedy, and topping the night (or would it be morning?) off with the covert op of sneaking out of the dorm and hiking up an arduous hill to get to the Rick's building in time to watch the sun rise. At this point, I remember it being daylight savings time, and needless to say, we lost an hour...We rang in the new change of time by wrapping our bare-footed bodies in our bed comforters, sitting in front of the Hinckley building (since the Rick's was locked) and slowly watching as the sky transformed from a cloudy, dark gray to purple, yellow, and orange. We simply sat and immersed ourselves in the serenity of nature and the deserted, placid campus. During that half hour, I realized what an inspired, sweet, gentle, gifted, beautiful, creative, and determined spirit this friend of mine possessed. I also realized that she and I were the experiences of this night personified. We are at the point in our lives where we are trying to determine whether we're still in the realm of "yesterday" or if we've moved on to the time known as "today." To this friend, I say it's "today." I say that she and I let go of last night and open our hearts and minds to a new and glorious day, full of new opportunities, dreams, loves, and challenges. It is now 8 o'clock in the morning and I hear this friend snoring, only twenty minutes after our return home from this grand adventure...Don't hesitate. Join with me, now, friend. Let's get out of bed, get dressed, grab some whole-wheat applesauce muffins, and run gregariously into the arms of this new day that are stretched out before us.
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