PLAY, COLLEGE & FIRST JOB!

       So I am an official high school graduate, nearing the end of my summer before I start college. I am so thrilled, but there's a lot I haven't updated on here from before school ended. Here I go again.
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       1. The last time I updated this blog, my Cup Song video from YouTube had a little over 600 views. That was in late April. It is now the beginning of August, and it currently has 5,258 views, 45 likes and 4 dislikes, but I honestly don't care about the dislikes. There's so many YouTube people who literally spend all their time watching cup song videos & criticizing them & leaving comments on them describing every thing they did wrong. Those people have not posted a single cup song video themselves. Losers. The only one that can judge my Cup Song video is Anna Kendrick, and I don't think she would.
       2. The play I wrote and directed at school turned out freaking amazing! During the rehearsal process, we had a couple problems with personal issues of some of my cast members, but we solved them. I wasn't having no dysfunction within my cast. We had cast bonding and stuff and we all felt much closer after that. I managed to get like half the school pumped about seeing my play alone, & everyone was excited because they knew I wrote it. I was really proud of it. My cast did great with memorizing their lines ahead of schedule and bringing their costumes and props. The first night of the show, there was a mishap with the soundtrack. I was playing it from my computer iTunes connected to an aux cable to play it over the speakers. But one of my cast members, TWO MINUTES before the show started, told me she forgot one of her costume shirts upstairs in the dressing room. There were some costume changes for all of the cast, basically, because the play took place over several days & we're not cartoon characters.So I had to run upstairs and get it, but during that time, my laptop just shut off. So between scenes, where there was supposed to be awesome indie music playing (that the cast and I honestly spent hours picking out), it was just silent. I wanted to scream. During rehearsals, when something went wrong, I would yell cuss words or just groan loudly, but having an audience silenced me. Eventually I got it working again and there was music. The audience loved it & I got so many compliments after the show from the parents of my cast and random people! The second night was MY FAVORITE. One of the best nights of my life. The sound & lighting was amazing, my actors had improved so much, and I was just so happy watching backstage. As Carry On played after the show finished, my cast bowed, and after they all bowed, I bowed because I wrote the whole damn 20 minute play all by myself! I spent so much time working on it & I felt I deserved a bow. AND WE GOT A STANDING OVATION! I almost cried, the feeling of satisfaction was so overwhelming. I will remember it forever. And honestly, so many people came up to me after & said my play was the best one out of all three student directed plays that night. So awesome. Then we had a cast dinner at IHOP after, wooo. Such an amazing experience, and I can't wait for theater at UT Arlington. :)
       3. I got an internship at The Branch church! And every other intern graduated with me or the year before me from Turner. Ughhhh. It's only for Sundays, entering college freshmen & sophomores come teach Sunday school classes (or just watch the babies) from newborns up to 5th grade. I teach (with an adult partner) the toddler class which is 18 months to 3 years old first service, and Sarah & I do 4th & 5th grade second service. AND it's a paid internship! But I think I would do it even if I weren't getting paid. It's been such a great experience. The toddler class is my favorite, they're just so cute & funny & becoming little people who actually know who we are & what's going on. The 4th-5th grade class is usually kinda tough, I leave tired every day. I also helped at The Branch vacation bible school, which was awesome, I had a class of 8-year-olds. Then I did Spotlight again, a musical camp for kids 1st grade to 6th grade. All counselors are teenagers, and my fellow counselors were pretty cool. We had 3rd & 4th graders. In my group there were several kids who became very attached to me, always wanted to hug me & hold my hand & sit in my lap. I loved it. One of them was an Asian girl, Maille, who was adopted into one of my favorite families there. She always was attached to me, & she would practically cry when I had to leave her to go do a counselor thing or to use the bathroom or anything. I think it has to do with the fact that her grandfather died recently, because the first time I had to leave her for a while, she asked if I was going away forever & if she would ever see me again. Awww. I had her older sister Olivia in my Spotlight group last year, & I got pretty close with her younger sister, Edie, who's six and so so funny. Maille & Edie are very close sisters and both became very close to me. I love them so much. Their family has adopted five kids & had two biologically, Olivia & Edie. Their parents are missionaries, so right now they're traveling & I'm sad they're gone for a couple months, at least. But I've had such a great summer with all the kids & volunteers at the Branch, and I definitely wanna volunteer in the future.


Once again, those are the major events of my past couple months! I'm so excited for college. I've got my schedule, dorm & roommate all set up, and I'm just so ready. Hopefully I'll have time to update this & do more YouTube videos. Have a great school year!

xoxo, Erin