Student Blog: Finals Week 2024

Hello friends! It has been a hot minute. I hope all of your finals weeks went well and that your summer has successfully begun! I wanted to take a minute to chat about how my finals went and what my finals week looked like and what all I had to do for them.

I think my biggest struggle this week was trying to play catch up with all of the homework I had to do that I had put on the back burner due to rehearsals for a show I was in. I was in a musical called Yeast Nation the weekend before finals week began, so a lot of my time and energy went into doing the show and trying to rest when I could. So, my main goal at the beginning of the week was to try and get back on track to complete everything I needed to do before going into other exams. Luckily, two of my final exams or performances I had already done prior to finals week. My final for my directing class was just for me to present my scene that I had been working on all semester. For my scene, we had about 6 rehearsals outside of class, and then the week before finals week, my actors then performed the scene we had worked on and I got graded on that. I also already had done my last performance for my Broadway dance class as well and was graded based on that.

This left a few other bigger finals I had to accomplish. On Monday I had my voice jury, which was my final for my private voice class. What this final looks like was basically, out of the five songs I worked on all semester in private voice, I got to pick one song and bring it into a panel of voice faculty members who then listened and graded me on my song. Then, they picked one song out of the remaining 5 that they wanted to hear and they grade me on that one as well. This averages out to about 20% of my grade. The song I went in with was Two Little LInes by Drew Gaspirini and then they picked Never from On the Twentieth Century. I was really nervous because my voice was tired from just getting done with a show and I wanted so badly to do my best. I ended up leaving and feeling really good about my jury. I loved both of the songs I sang and I had a really good time getting to perform them. I was really proud of myself and the work I had done.

Next up, I had to finish my BFA project that I was doing on the show I was in. That was due on Tuesday. So, after my voice jury, I grinded on that project as much as I could for the rest of the day, until that evening. That evening was my university’s chapter of Alpha Psi Omega’s Tony’s Night. We host it every year and give out awards for best performer, best ensemble, best show, etc and everyone dresses up all fancy and it truly is a lot of fun and I’m glad to have been apart of it. After that it was Tuesday, I turned in my project and could breathe a little bit easier.

On Wednesday, I just had my BFA project review meeting where I met with some faculty members and they discussed my work on the show I was in, how they liked my project, and other things like that before they gave me my final grade. It went really well and it was fun to get to talk to my professors about the show and such. After that, I had a staff meeting for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival. For the festival, I am the Volunteer Staff Manager, more info on my role and the festival in a future blog to come. After that it was time for Alpha Psi Omega elections where we elect a new executive board for the following year and I am so excited to be our chapter’s president next year! It is such a great organization and I can’t wait for next year.

This brought us to Thursday, my last final. I had my science test for the Environmental Hazards class I was in. This is the one I was dreading because I am not very good at science, but I studied a lot the days before and I actually felt really good about the test. After that, I had to write a final reflection paper for my class and turn it in and then that was it! I was done!

This finals week was a bit more rough than normal. I was way behind on a lot of things and I was getting overwhelmed really fast. I had so much homework and exams that I needed to work on, and final meetings for my extracurriculars, and I also wanted to spend time with my friends before we all went home for the summer. It was a lot. The only thing I could do was take it one day at a time. That’s it. That is all I could do. And I made it. It is now summer, and I am finally relaxing. And it feels so good.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer so far. Relax, hang out, and as always, go do great things.

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