Student Blog: Summer of 2024

Summer is finally here, finals are over and it is time to not have to worry about classes and projects for a hot second. Hey. I hope all of your summers are off to a great start and your finals weeks were as non-stressful as possible. I wanted to talk about what my plans for this summer entailed and what I will be up to.

First things first, I was the Volunteer Staff Manager for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival 2024 hosted at the Dobbins Conservatory where I go to school. The festival was a blast and I’m so so grateful to have been a part of it. I’ll go into more detail about the festival and what being on staff was like in a later post. In brief, the festival is a week long new play festival where we do a ton of staged readings of full length plays and short length plays along with workshops during the day with various guest artists and such. It is always a great week and I leave feeling recharged creatively and I’m super glad I got to be apart of it. So, I spent the first two weeks of my summer on that and I couldn’t be more grateful for that experience.

Next up, I am currently writing this post from Arkansas! Immediately following the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, I went home, packed, and then drove to Arkansas to spend the week with my significant other, exploring, relaxing and getting to see his hometown and such. It has been so fun so far and I’ve enjoyed getting to spend time with him and in his home!

Once I get home from Arkansas it is time for what is quite literally my favorite season of the year and what I wait for every single year, that’s right, you know: summer camp season. Every year I am a camp counselor out at Green Pastures Christian Retreat Center in Meredosia, Illinois. I get to spend the last three weekends of June out at PAC camp, Performing Arts Camp, getting to share my love of theatre with kids of all ages and getting to spend time with some of my favorite people who I only get to see once a year. I always leave camp feeling recharged spiritually and recharged as a person in general and it is one of my most favorite things in the whole wide world. I love it so so much. It is so special. And I’m blessed to play a tiny part in it. I also get to be a counselor later in the summer for another camp at the same retreat center called Fire in Our Hearts for a week in July that I cannot wait for. I love camp season. I love being a camp counselor and I literally cannot wait for next weekend. If you are interested in Green Pastures at all, their website can be found here for more information!

Some other miscellaneous things on the docket are a few little family vacations, my summer jobs, and definitely making some trips to see some local community theatre shows as well as shows at the Muny in St. Louis. Outdoor theatre is always a huge sign for me that summer has officially begun and I love love LOVE it.

That’s about it for my summer. I love summer. I love summer time and laying by the pool and getting to hang out with my hometown friends. I miss my college pals very dearly, but it is always nice to be home for a short while.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far. As always, go do great things!