Month: November 2018

Personal Development

I am a very introverted person among strangers. I sit in the back of class, taking notes and quietly reading during down times. I much prefer solo work to group projects, as I always felt like the teacher guiding the others through the work, not an equal member of the team.  Engineering 1181.02 forced me out of this shell. I was stuck into a team from the get go. I had never met anyone from the team prior to our partnership, and we were only grouped together based on a single survey. I was dreading having to take the lead and force the rest of the team to get in line and get to work. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I met the others.

 

It still surprises me at times that everyone around me was the smart kid at their school, so they are likely to have similar experiences to mine. These similarities allowed for easier understanding of each other’s perspectives, which in turn started the team off on the right foot with the understanding that everyone has to contribute equally. Sure there have been rough patches, but since starting at OSU, I have interacted with more people  than I think I ever did in the last two years of highschool. I now am slightly, yet still significantly more comfortable talking and working with others who I know only in passing. I ask for help and give help in turn. Honestly, I was becoming concerned with how isolated allowed myself to be during high school, and am glad to know I can still make connections with others, even if only on a professional level

Artifact 2

This is the shirt I received for working my last drama show with the high school. I had spent nearly the entirety of my time at BHS working on or backstage. Eight shows total, 3 musicals and 5 plays. Stage Manager for Senior Year. Crew and Cast member. I did just about everything at least once.

Drama Club in general was a place I could relax and ignore life’s worries for a while. I could just cut loose and engage with others who see me for me. During Middle school, I loved choir. It was my go-to extracurricular. But scheduling conflicts led me to be unable to take it in high school, so I decided to try out for backstage with drama, and I never looked back after.

Senior year I was given the opportunity to work closely with the director as the backstage manager. I had never had a role with that much responsibility. Not only was I to direct crew during rehearsal and productions, I also helped to lead with set design, construction, and prop design. Having a team that I knew I could trust to get the job done was pivotal in getting the shows up and running. We managed to get a group of greenhorns and senior crew together to make this happen. The greenhorns could learn and pass on the torch to the next set of student once we had left, while the senior members gave guidance and helped to control the chaos.

This was also the show tat came closest to tragedy. We were using scaffolding towers within the production, and during the final dress rehearsal, literally less than twenty-four hours before opening, one of the towers came down on stage while we were practicing. Luckily no one was hurt, but the tower tore a hole in the curtain and scared the hell out of everyone, especially the director. Since no one else knew what to do, I cleared stage and sealed it off until we made sure nothing else was going to happen. Once were were secure in our continued safety, the show went on, gaffer-taped curtain and all. Honestly, I think this was one of the better shows we performed, no major issues during the run, nor drama between cast members backstage.

Overall, I feel like my time with drama has greatly helped me to break out of my shell. I could become someone else for a while, and just have fun, and in the end, isn’t that all that matters?