Be open-minded, be adventurous

I cannot believe I am about to write this sentence, but here I go – I am leaving for London for a whole month in just five days. I cannot wrap my mind around this, and I cannot believe how fast time has passed since I was accepted into my dialogue in February. This trip still feels like something that is in the far future, and it is nothing I have to think about in the immediate present – but my calendar very much tells me otherwise.

There is so much to prepare for in these next five days – I need to make a packing list, and more importantly, purchase a suitcase big enough to fit my packing list. I need to say a “see you soon” to my friends, my boyfriend, my family, and my guitar. I need to get in the mindset that I am going to be living in a different country for a month, and prepare for all of the challenges I am inevitably going to face. I find myself suppressing my nervousness over all of the difficult and uncomfortable things that I know I am going to be facing while in London. I am nervous about taking acting and voice classes (something I have never done before and quite anxious about), being so far away from home, knowing where to buy food and other necessities, making friends, and what my day to day schedule is going to look like. Maybe once I accept everything that I am nervous about, it will start to sink in that I am leaving in five days (*gulp*).

Looking back to a time when May seemed so far away, its interesting to see how I decided to go on this dialogue, because I never pictured myself studying abroad or thinking that it was something I could fit into my schedule being a transfer student. One day in January I was perusing my email, and I saw something about a social justice dialogue in London. I read the description, thought it sounded interesting, but I wasn’t sure that social justice was for me. I forwarded it to my mom just to see what she thought, and once my mom saw my email, she went into full mom mode, and encouraged me to look at other programs. When looking at the GEO website, the London Theatre Experience caught my eye, and after reading the description online and meeting one on one with the advisor, Samantha Richert, I knew I had to do it. I always want to push myself to be the best that I can be, and challenge myself to grow. Through my different life experiences, I know that by stepping outside of your comfort zone is where you grow the most, and I knew this dialogue would provide me a huge learning and growing opportunity. Studying acting, performing monologues, and living more than an hour away from home, are all things that make my heart race and my hands sweat, but I want to conquer these fears and learn to be completely comfortable with these experiences. Not only would this opportunity allow me to grow as a person, but I knew that the skills from acting and voice classes would be practical in my day to day life, as well as my professional life, making this experience even more enticing.

By the end of my program, I hope to make new lifelong friends, feel at ease performing, learn tools to help me communicate effectively, and explore everything London has to offer. Every day, I am going to try my best to be present, be open-minded, be adventurous, and not take myself too seriously, in order to achieve my goals and get the most out of this opportunity. I cannot wait to meet everyone and start building connections, settle in to my space, eat some pizza and have a spot of tea, and finally stop worrying over my countdown (I’m leaving in 5 days in case you forgot!).