Student Blog: Taking it Day By Day as a Senior

I’ve always been a big planner. My agenda currently is written perfectly and accurately until Christmas. I get extremely stressed out when I feel my schedule ISN’T correct because god forbid I miss a lunch plan or planned homework time. But going into senior year, my goal has been to stop thinking ahead. Have I accomplished this?

Well, I closed my first show as a senior last Sunday which is absolutely bonkers. I performed in a comedic, period piece called Tom Jones that exhausted me mentally and physically. Despite this, I was extremely fulfilled doing what I love to do. As I have come back to school for my final year, I have been distracting myself with these rehearsals and performances. Now that it’s over, I realize how much I have not processed about starting my final year and how terrified I am to no longer feel that fulfillment. And wow, has that realization been more than overwhelming.

I think it’s great and extremely important to be grateful for what you have. I am grateful to be going to the school I am, to be in the theatre community I am in, and to have the friends I have. But I have been hitting a point where I am too nostalgic. Closing my first show felt like a part of my life coming to a close, despite still having seven months of the school year left. All the questions came rushing into my head on closing night. These friends I am so grateful for? The wonderful underclassman I have met? What if I never see them again? Questions like this are not setting me up to achieve my goal of enjoying and basking in my senior year of college. 

The thing with being a senior in a major that is heavily performance-focused is that there is always something that can keep you busy. I am jumping right into rehearsing for a show in NYC and participating in student-directed scenes which continues to make my days feel like they go by so fast. My first month already feels like it’s gone by in a flash, and the last three years seem like three days to me. This has been overwhelming me so much that I have decided to take a new approach this year: taking it day by day. Which can be difficult to do with my schooling schedule. I work part-time at a theatre in my community plus 12 credits worth of classes. So here are my tips on how to enjoy your senior year without jumping ahead to graduation before May even arrives:

Tip #1: Do as much with the people you enjoy as possible. Me time is great and super important. But when I have to work on a scene for Acting for the Camera with other people, I also try to invite them over for dinner afterward. Spontaneous dinners with my friends keep me out of my head, get me to do my homework, and even a homecooked meal every once and a while. 

Tip #2: Take every (free!) educational opportunity offered. My school offers talk-backs and workshops with theatre professionals almost monthly for us students in the department. I find it vital for the rest of my education career as well as my future professional career for me to learn all I can now while I don’t have to go out of my way to take acting classes and workshops. Why not take advantage of it while it’s free and right in front of me?

Tip #3: Don’t take any situation (audition, class project, etc.) too seriously! There will be plenty of time post-school to be hard on yourself and take things seriously. I am going to take advantage of the freedom an educational setting gives me to make mistakes and learn about yourself before I have to apply all that knowledge in the real world. 

I’m going to try to follow my own tips as best I can. Then maybe I’ll stop planning out the rest of my life and just enjoy the one I am living now. 

To post a comment, you must register and login.