BOTSWANA- A Month Later...

Sooo...
It's been a month since I've returned from Botswana! I can't believe so much time has passed! It seems like just yesterday, we were heading into the van from the Maru-A-Pula school for the six hour ride to the airport in Johannesburg bound for the States.

Since I've been back, I've returned to my job in the Admissions office as a tour guide and workstudy student for the summer. I love the staff here and I love learning more about the Admissions process for Juilliard so, it's been great. While I've been back I've had the opportunity to catch up with some of my old friends from outside of school that I rarely have the chance to see. One of them is a girl I auditioned for the program with. She was just accepted to the UCSD Grad Acting Program, and will be heading out there in the Fall. We met up last night and talked for hours! I needed to see her because she is a constant source of inspiration and joy! Funny, talented, the quintessential go-getter she always reminds me of what it means to have true friends as an artist. People who inspire you through their love for art as well. I really treasure and I'll miss her when she is out there in California, but I'm so happy that she has this opportunity.

This year should be an interesting journey as we begin to perform on the mainstage in the Spring with our Shakespeare plays running in Rep. I have mixed feelings about public performances as most of them in our 1st and 2nd year were for the Division and for our family and friends...but ultimately I'm excited to see what sort of plays have been selected. People often ask me if I'm excited about graduation, and I remind them that it's only my 3rd year, and that I'm not in a rush to encounter reality just yet! I really want to relish my time as a student and enjoy being in an environment where my only responsibility is to learning. But ten there are times, like during ,y conversation with my friend that I think to myself: "I love this! Just spending time with friends, talking about the business, thinking ways to collaborate as an artist..." It just excited me the thought of graduating and being a professional in the industry and taking opportunities in rehearsal to have fun and play! Who knows...maybe even booking that prime-time cop show or medical drama that I'll be a series regular in...just having my life be MY life and not being a student! That's something I obviously look forward to as well.Because honestly...as wonderful as Juilliard is,there have been many days I've found myself in a Voice class, with my mind not so much occupied on how to make the perfect "schwa", but considering what it would be like to have my own garden! To work with a cultural dance troupe directing my own theatre/dance piece, to develop my own charter school for the arts in Washington, DC , or even to go back to Trinidad and find a way to build an arts conservatory serving students throughout the Caribbean.

In Layman's terms: I'm ready to continue making a difference! I'm grateful to have a place to learn how to make that possible here...but the time (thankfully) is approaching when I'll no longer fall into the "arts school trap" of comparing myself to others, but instead find freedom in expressing my own voice, steering my ship on it's own course called "Destiny"...

Until then...I need to work on my "Schwa"!