My weaknesses yesterday are my strengths today.
This semester I am feeling incredibly accomplished as I’ve been working hard at both of the fields that I want to go into once I am done with college. This semester, I am a teaching assistant for News Editing for Public Relations, which I took last semester. Being a TA gives me a lot of experience in copyediting and honing in on my strengths. I’m prepping for a presentation on creating an e-portfolio and recently gave a lecture on blogging. As for theatre, I stage managed “for colored folk…” early February and just finished assistant stage managing the Shared MFA Dance Thesis Concert: “Pleated” and “My Tempest.”
We’re told to make sure that we love the job we go into—but I think that it’s easier said than done when you factor in the economy and a passion for performing arts. My decision to drop my theatre major last semester was a difficult one to make, but knowing that stage management would boost my experience in event management and still maintain my passion for theatre let me decide that it was the best way for me to focus entirely on public relations.
These crew-operated clouds set the mood for “Pleated” and “My Tempest.”
Working on these shows taught me a few things that I probably would not have learned until I was in the professional world. Working on the dance show was frustrating at times. The MFA Dance Concert consisted of two separate shows choreographed by two different grad students—so we were working two shows at the same time on top of our responsibilities as fulltime students and working part-time. Sometimes the amount of work that we put into them was overwhelming and under-appreciated, and occasionally the tension between stage management and choreographers was extremely evident. I remember on our second performance night our production coordinator told me she hoped that working on this show had not scared me away from SMing in the future and I told her that would be ridiculous, and that if anything I felt more prepared to SM a show than before.
I look at all experiences as learning opportunities even if they’re not the best-case scenarios. When things don’t go according to plan, either take it as a lesson on how to handle it in the future. I now know to make sure that my client and I are always on the same page throughout the entire production; I’m getting better at responding kindly to not as kind clients and co-workers and I’m constantly perfecting my ability to recognize and balance my priorities.
My weaknesses yesterday are my strengths today. I’d like to imagine that this is also what being an adult is all about.
TJ Digital Creative 