My Senior Year! :O

Well....I just finished my senior year of college...and I've graduated and then I'll be moving on to the next stage of my life. This is gonna be fun O_O

Before this happens, though, I wanted to write down my thoughts on my last year at uni. Oh and by the way, I got straight A's both semesters! :)

The Fall semester was a pretty fun one overall. I did some cool non-major (but minor-related) classes, which I enjoyed a lot. I got a better appreciation for poetry, we had some really cool in depth and I got to WRITE fun stuff for homework! :) I also got the role of Sadel in "The Desk Set", which is one of the lead roles, in a play during this semester, which was a lot of fun and I was so happy to get to do it! :) I also made a friend with a girl in one of my classes and we had fun talking about books and writing and the like. The kids I was around this semester were weird to me, which I didn't understand and I wish I knew why this was going on?

This semester was also good in that I got to take some classes I'd always wanted to take in college as well as finally getting to read some stuff I've wanted to read for a while.

Oh, and I watched season 13 of Supernatural during this time. This show, which I started at 17, has kinda been my college show friend throughout these past four years and it was certainly a good one :)

Theater History I - This class was really fun and interesting, especially cause we got to read a lot of fun plays from all over. For example, I'd always wanted to read Greek Drama and I got to read two of them! :) We also read a Roman Comedy, a Japanese Noh play, a Sanskrit Drama, and various plays from England, France, Spain, etc. Here are some I remember - Antigone, Medea, Psuedolus, Atsumori, The Little Clay Cart, Dr. Faustus, (we read Hamlet too but I had already read it in my Shakespeare course), Fuenteovejuna, Phedre, and The Rover. I also enjoyed learning about the history of all these different places and how theater grew and developed in these areas. I also did a really funny presentation about Euripides which I had filmed. 

Shakespeare - In this class we read various Shakespeare plays, discussed them, and through that I was able to gain a greater appreciation for Shakespeare's abilities. The plays we read were - The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Othello (I didn't read this one since I'd already read it and remembered it very well since I wrote a paper on Desdemona), Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and King Lear. I was very happy that I finally got to read so many Shakespeare plays since I've been meaning to read some for a while now.

Creative Writing course - This class was a lot of fun and, as a writer, I had fun getting to do things that were actually fun for homework. Since it was an introductory class, we worked on writing fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction (as well as reading examples of these). We had to write lots of small stuff but our main stuff was writing two big projects, where we had to choose two of the three genres (I wrote a fiction piece and a creative non-fiction piece. Message me if you would like to read them). A lot of the kids were pretty awful at writing, but some were good, which made me happy. There was an annoying girl in my class that liked to argue with me for no reason but thankfully the teacher made her stop.

Literature course - This was another fun course where we read short stories, plays, and poems and analyzed them. I had fun going into depth on the various stories we read and we had some really good discussions in class. I also got to give some good points in discussion and I was actually decently well liked in this class, which was a new thing!

Gender Studies - I've always wanted to take a feminist class and I was really happy I got to take one. In this class, we talked about women's issues, race issues, and LGBT issues. A lot of our reading was diverse too, which was nice. We also read some stuff that led credence to a lot of beliefs I've had that have been contested by others (so yes, I was right, the 'men are stronger' thing is total bullshit'). We also did a physical movement thing for a couple of class periods which was a lot of fun (I got to flip my teacher in the AIR :D And one time me and this one girl were able to do this leaning on each other thing and hold each other up thing and we were used as an example...which is weird since I hate physical contact but with her it was ok).


Now, my last semester. This one was super busy and I don't know how I managed to get everything done but I did. All the while, I was  doing 18 hours, 3 of which were practicum(I had to do crew work for both shows and I had to work in the shop for 80 hours, booo), working part time where my work load got a lot more often, and getting my black belt in TKD. Also, I had to FILM (which I'll get into more below) and memorize lots of monologues and scenes as well as do lots of reading and do an online course! D: All in all, it was long but I was able to complete my major and my minor, which is all that matters!


Theater History II - This class wasn't as fun as the first one, but that was to be expected since it was more modern. I also had an issue where the entire class turned on me and I had to shout over them because they took something I said and twisted it up (what I said was RIGHT. Jeezz....). We did learn some cool stuff about more modern theater and I got to read some stuff I'd always wanted to read, which was good. We read - The Escape: A Leap for Freedom, Ubu the King, Machinal, Death of a Salesman, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Waiting for Godot, and Angels in America: The Millennium Approaches. If you want to read a good play, READ Angels in America cause it's GOOD.

Auditions - This class was SUPER helpful. Not only did I learn how to audition better, but I became a better actor in general and I feel much more prepared for the outside world. Our teacher (and the substitute we had there for a bit who directs in a fairly major theater company not too far away) gave super helpful tips on how to perform better monologues and scenes and I loved watching everyone grow better over the semester. We did monologues from a variety of different types of plays and we even learned how to act absurdism, which was FUN :) We also learned more about the business in general and how to go about doing things.

Film acting - This class had been my most anticipated class of all time and sadly I was kinda let down :/ I hardly got to do ANY acting in front of the camera and most of it was business related. However, we did do some cool stuff too. We had a famous TV director come to our class and direct some of the kids in a scene (not me D': I'm not well liked enough :( ), we got to do motion capture, and we did get to make a film and we did some cold readings as well as a scene and a self-submission. At first I had some trouble with the transition to acting on camera (since I'd done a lot of theater lately) and the teacher and I had trouble with communication (we just didn't click, it happens) but I finally figured it out and got good notes on my Self-submission :) :) (and my grades went UP UP UP :) ). I also aced my last quiz which made me happy.

A Class about diverse American works - In this class, we looked at plays about diverse topics and discussed not only the play itself but the issues surrounding them. I was glad the plays talked about a variety of issues, since I could see it being pretty "we are only going to talk about the African-American experience and the white gay man experience", which it didn't (those things did get talked about but it branched out more). The plays we read were - Flyin' West, The Laramie Project, Zoot Suit, A Piece of my Heart, Disgraced, How I Learned to Drive, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Yellow Face, Fun Home, Getting Out, and In the Next Room. While I didn't care for a couple of the plays, most were good and I enjoyed reading them (especially A Piece of My Heart. You need to read it NOW).

Online music course - This class I learned about music from all over the world, which was pretty interesting, especially since we got to listen to snippets of it. Everything was online and I had to take notes for the quizzes and exams as well as write short responses to questions. It was time consuming but it wasn't hard and I managed to get everything done on time, so YAY.

Crewing the shows - I had to do run crew for both shows (a straight play and a musical). Neither were plays I liked all that much (the first one I HATED) but it wasn't too hard thankfully and I enjoyed getting a lot of reading done backstage in between my cues, so that was nice. Had some troubles during the second show due to scheduling but I figured it out.

Working in the scene shop - This would have been ok had the hours been less but I spent way too much time working here. I had to do six hours a week almost every week and it took a lot of my time. I did learn more about how to use the different tools and my painting got better, which was nice. I was glad when I was done though.

Overall, I am glad to finally be done. My college years have been a trial ride of ups and downs, with positives and negatives about each of the uni's I attended. I am glad I had the experience I had, though I would change things now that I'm older and I know more. While I am disappointed in myself and in others due to things like only getting cast in one main stage show my entire college career (the other two were in different places), which wasn't fair at all. I had really hoped to get the lead in one show but I guess I'll just have to wait :( I also wanted to make the whole 'life long friends' thing you hear about in fiction. but that didn't occur and neither did me finding a boyfriend (which si going to be harder now that I'm not in school). There are a few other things but I won't go into that.

On the other hand, I did learn a lot in my four years and I managed to FINISH in four years and keep a strong GPA the entire time. I never skipped class, I turned in my homework on time, and I never wrote a paper the night before. I never flunked a class and I managed to love almost every class I took in some capacity. I managed to hold down a part time job to help pay for things as well as train for and eventually RECEIVE my black belt in Taekwondo. I have become a better actor and a better writer as well as a better athlete and academic. With my diploma and my training, I think I have what it takes to take on both the acting and the writing businesses with the same dedication I gave to my classes. And that, at least, is a good thing.

Shena Tokala, singing out.