My first post in WEEKS.
So much has happened, I knew it would be a
crazy time but I didn’t realise just how out of control it would feel at times.
At the worst, I’ve had a pounding heart, stinking headache, tight chest, even
chest pains. Sometimes all at once. At the best, I’ve looked around my new
locale during a sunrise or sunset, and have felt incredibly blessed. I’ll take
all of the former (although not too often!) if the payoff is the latter.
I’ve finally started at the RCS. My journey
started several months ago, back in March. Just over 6 months to the day that I
registered.
I met my new teacher, auditioned, jumped
through many hoops on the finance front, renovated an old house, cleared out
years of junk, cut back on my material possessions, left full time employment,
abandoned my beloved harp pupils and Brownies, upped sticksand eventually moved
420 miles North West of tropical North East Essex.
I have left the (normally) suited and
booted world of business and finance.
I am now a fully paid up creative type, and
a performer and artist of the future. The first time someone referred to me in
this way, it was more than I could comprehend. And yet, when I looked around
the packed theatre, I was indeed surrounded by many, many more performers and artists.
Actors, film makers, producers, composers, opera singers , classical musicians,
jazz musicians, in fact disciplines far too numerous to mention.
We had a fabulous lecture yesterday, about
Higher Education and what it meant. Initially it was one of those clichéd “turn
to someone you haven’t met and discuss what Higher Education is to you”
moments. But then we were introduced to a wonderful creative manifesto,
courtesy of Bruce Mau - Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. I had been inspired by many other words in the past, but
this was a great one for the moment we were in.
As well as this, a wonderful quote was read
to us, from On Lies, Secrets and Silence by Adrienne Rich. This was about
Claiming rather than Receiving an Education. Frustatingly I can’t find the
words on line to share here, but I will be exploring these much more in the
future. Claiming being an active, empowered, entitled activity, as opposed to
the passiveness of receiving.
I’ve met an inspiring composer, many
wonderful guitarists, a lovely bassoonist, a gorgeous actor. I’m struggling with a lack of tea, and can’t
say I’m enjoying the bus journey to and from college.
But the practice sessions I’ve done over
the last couple of days have had a new purpose. It’s a cliché, but I feel more
free and yet more purposeful. I can’t say what the end result of the next four
years will be, but that’s all part of the journey.
The course starts properly next week. I am
performing to my guitarist friends in a performing class next week. My first
concert is in less than a month. I will be playing some old and some new
material. I’m sure the pressure will come, but for now, everything feels good and
I am more excited about my future than I have been for a long, long time.
