The time has come for a post that I don't feel like I ever seriously thought about writing before: The Graduation Post. It's not that I thought I'd never graduate (I always knew I would . . .eventually)  I just ended up loving school so darn much I wasn't really begging for the graduation day to come. But it came. At least the ceremony of the thing did. I walked in April but I won't stop paying tuition until December and then won't technically have a diploma and teaching certificate until I successfully complete my internship. I wonder what criteria they'll use for "successfully complete." Do you think it has to do with whether the kids and I come out alive at the end of the year unscathed or if I'm good at keeping a grade book? Possibly a combination of the two.
          Internship, you ask? Oh yes, well, I will be teaching drama at a middle school for the next year while the teacher is on sabbatical. I feel like being a school teacher and getting paid to do what I have studied and spending every day with 12-14 year olds makes me for all practical intents and purposes, graduated. So I decided to go through the ceremony and performance of the thing. It helps with closure and makes things seem real. Only graduation may be one of the most unreal or perhaps surreal experiences ever. But that's not really what we came here to talk about. I know what you want: pictures. Don't worry, I'll give them to you. Because heaven knows the only thing more I can say about it is that it created more emotions than anticipated. 
        I was so happy and excited to have my mama there, and  to wear the new dress she had made me. I loved listening to Elder Oaks, walking and sitting with my dear friends on a stage that I had assistant stage managed and interpretive danced on and taking pictures outside a building that had held a huge part of my world for the last 4 and a half years.But the excitement also held a bit of sadness. It was a day of good byes as Brigham Square, where we had met and said hello, became the place I said good bye to my dear Childresses.   I feel like in the face of such wonderfulness and personal meaning it is difficult to really describe it and keep this whole thing from becoming one of those unbearable personal slide shows done to a terribly smarmy song or worse, a personal bawl fest. Besides, it's been a while and you'd think after Arabian Nights, frankenuterus and a month at home I'd been a little bit more removed from the whole thing. So here are the pictures promised about fifty-five sentences ago.

Mama and I after the big convocation. Here's a secret I actually walked in with the Life Sciences people, so I could sit by my friends, the Rexes. Rebel graduate without a cause? I think so!

Jeffrey just finished his freshman year at the Y as I was finishing my last. I've always loved going to school with him

Me, Jes and Allison. We were all in the same 276 class, it's the application class for theatre education and here we are about to walk together as dear friends now not scared major applicants, knowing way more stuff about theatre and education than we knew before!

This is my darling friends Kristie. We had two benches on the fifth floor that practically had our names on them we studied and talked there so much. Rodger called the benches our office. That office and those chats were a  great ballancing force for me hat last year. 

I heard this phrase a while ago and I've been dying to use it: here I am with my bestie for the restie. We're outside the hfac and it looks like we're saying "can you believe we did it?" or "we're gonna make it after all" or even "love ya"but in reality I think she had tried to start a game of kick butt or something and I was trying to get us to look like recent grads for the picture. 

The Childresses and me, rockin' the old cap and gown for our very last (that wasn't even meant to be) themed hurrah. 

Evie Bean, that sweet girl. Saying goodbye to that baby was difficult. I mean I knew her when she was just barely the size of a bean!

Oh graduation is just a hoot and a half!

So there it all is. The graduation. We'll end it with a goodbye picture. I loved BYU, the hfac, going to school, the people I met and the things I got to do more than I could have ever imagined as a scared little freshman, who had just paid tuition for the first time. 

There are such things in this world known as Theme Sundays. The Childresses and I created these nights as a way to send ourselves out of our undergrad experience in style. At least that's the reason we gave. I think we just really love dressing up and love a good photo shoot. You have to know this to make the fact I made a documentary about said nights for my media in the contemporary classroom class make any sort of sense. We were sitting around on a normal Sunday night (which consisted of chatting, dinner, chatting and brownies that one person, who shall remain nameless, always said were undercooked. What does he know? I love him, but he's cray cray if he thinks boxed brownies were invented to be something more than warm chocolate gooeyness. Make em from scratch if you want something real. Don't worry, he's knows this is how I feel) and the idea came out. Wouldn't it be fun if . . . ?



    So we started with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We always did our research. That slogan is legit stuff, people. "No US dough to help Jim Crow Grow!

We found our most successful nights were holiday-based. So the next was Presidents' Day.

This was when the idea of a slogan was born. It really helped everyone get into character and gave great starting points for monologuing. 

 And then Valentines' day, which was slightly less successful because we didn't actually dress up or do a proper collage. You can see how I felt about that.

We watched the movie Valentine's Day, I feel like that explains some of the floppedness of the evening.

Our second to last theme night is the night we fabricated (actually on a Monday and not a Sunday, do me a solid and don't tell people in my class. My street cred for authenticity will go out the window) for the purposes of creating the documentary. It was Arbor Day. Probably our most successful night (because who can resist talking in front of a camera) 

"From our earthy hearts to yours, we sincerely hope you planted a tree on April 30, 2012." 

. . .until we premiered the film. In our most clever of finale shows: Hipster Night.

At this point you've seen our other friend, Richard, twice. He just happened to show up from Clearfield both times for one kind of drama teacher thing or another. But on Theme Sundays, if you're here, you're participating. We didn't let him in the door Hipster Night without a solemn swearing that he'd dress the part. 

We were good at these characters . . .perhaps a little too good, we went around trying to one-up each other about who was most well read in obscure books. I personally had a story for each item of clothing, carried a canvas tote with My Name is Asher Lev and a book on Jewish photography for my Jewish Studies class. My sweater was something I helped an old Bolivian village woman weave out of Alpaca wool from her Alpaca herd. Just a sampling of how we mean business during theme nights.  But it was exclusive and really obscure and pretty legit. Not to mention all natural and organic. How I will miss Theme Sundays. An era. An era, my friends.

Here it is. I'm pretty proud of it, especially since it was my first time ever using a video editing program ever  (which I realize calling iMovie a "video editing program" makes me sound like I'm about 85. I'm not sure why it came out that way).

note: you have full permission to create your own theme night or theme moment (for a lesser effect) as you premiere this film. 

Theme Sunday: 

Arbor Day Edition

I think it is sometimes best to let things sit and ruminate and process before you start talking to the world at large about them. Granted, this could be a lame excuse for keeping everyone (but let's just be honest, it's really just my mom and myself) in the dark about this semester's happenings, but I'm going to go with it because it was my last real semester and I had to drink it in.
    One thing that became consuming in the best and most lovely way possible was my capstone directing project. It's one of the finale projects we theatre ed-ers are required to do and I couldn't have loved it more. I won't really talk about what the show is about (except that I think it's a story about trying to make a life out of your circumstances where you recognize yourself and feel safe) or even the name (because I'm one paranoid femme about copyright whatnot. Even though NO laws were broken in the making of this beautiful, collaborative project. I just like being safe about things). What I will say is that directing this project was such a profoundly fun and meaningful experience. I love directing. Who knew? I think if you'd asked me four years ago what was most intimidating about the prospect of theatre-making in general, I would have first said electricity, power tools and then directing. But boy howdy, I was wrong. It's not scary, it's like all the fun bits of teaching poured into one process. Probably that should be illegal it's so perfect. You ask questions, lead people and gather everyone's ideas. I definitely could not and would not have done this without my lovely actors (to whom I was directly lead by the Spirit). They made the characters I cared so much about come to life in a way I couldn't even have really imagined because each person's performance had so much to do with what it really means to be that actor in real life. Maybe that doesn't make sense. But every rehearsal (where the actors were perpetually in character) I feel like I got to have a peak into their souls. That is a privilege and a responsibility. And I felt that responsibility. I think we all did. It ended up being this thing where everyone took care of each other and was just so invested in the positive outcome of the show.
      Look at me, blabbing blabbing blabbing when I said I wouldn't really say much but rather I'd show you pictures (we're all a bit shocked: a post and pictures all in one day). These beautiful production photos were taken by one of my best friends, she'll say she has a great camera (which is 100% true) but she's also a great photographer. She got the cast to feel comfortable with her taking pictures of them, something I honestly wasn't sure they'd go for. Anyway, without any further gilding of the lily of the valley: here's one of the joys of my final semester life.

I dare you to look at these and not fall in love with how much these people love each other and how great they are at what they do.

Those kinds of details (the thumbs-up fist-bump) are things I wish I could take credit for but am so happy to say it was all the actors I chose. I can't say enough about my B, J, M and the other J!

Seriously, people. Seriously. This is the stuff I got to see Monday, Friday and Saturday.

They also chose all those props. One day we went props "shopping" and where they went. Once rehearsal started, I wouldn't go on stage without permission. It was their world.  

He's tapping the chair with "Broc the Rock" it's a rock I found at Jacob Lake and M adopted it as his own. 

And B had her unicorn. Everyone had at least one object they were super attached to. 

Have you fallen in love yet? 

How about now? 

 What about now? It's now, isn't it?