I left home a little earlier than necessary to get back to school. Most people don't get back to school until they absolutely have to, but, knowing that my next week would be a tough one, I wanted to get a head start on it. I had a little bit of time to do some work and some laundry (I promised myself I would never take dirty laundry home...so I left it in the room all of break) before rehearsal. Rehearsal Sunday afternoon began production week for Joseph. It was a pretty intense week during which I spent at least four hours a day in the theatre. The show opened Thursday night and we also performed on Friday and Sunday. My family was able to come up for the Friday night show and, incidentally, brought me presents for St. Nicholas Day (the 6th). Thank you, Mommy and Daddy.

Participating in Joseph was the first time I had done a musical at college. I did several of them in high school, but had decided against it for my freshman year. Looking back, it was a good decision. At this point, I'm not sure I'll ever do a musical again either. When I am in a stage production, it is easy to let the rest of life go by the wayside and focus on the show. Sometimes that was possible in high school. Not so in college though. It was a constant struggle to stay on top of my work in all my classes, fulfill all my responsibilities each day, and still show up to rehearsal with a good attitude ready to sing and dance the night away. I'd like to stay involved in the theatre though and am thinking about putting in a resume to assistant-direct in the spring. The time commitment would be the same as being in the show, but wouldn't exhaust me as much either physically or mentally.

Today is the last day of classes. In fact, in about an hour, I will have my last class of the semester. One would think that this will be cause for a huge sigh of relief. I will be relieved to a degree,  I think. But there is also a touch of sadness, for I really enjoyed my classes this semester. They all discussed topics which were fascinating to me and I have great respect for all of my professors. However, the sadness will be outweighed by an emotion akin to apprehension. Finals week is coming up. For college students, finals week entails a weekend of intense studying during which one re-acquaints oneself with four-months worth of knowledge that one may or may not have actually ever learned in the first place. Of course, this account is the worst case scenario. Studying for my tests probably won't be as bothersome as the papers I have to write, and those won't be too bad either. I think it is the rapidity with which one is called upon to remember so much information that stresses students the most. As a tutor for the philosophy department, I tend to also take some stress upon myself for all the students I've helped to study and I'll spend a good deal of time this weekend helping various students as well. So it will be an exciting weekend to say the least. And speaking of which, I need to get back to studying...