-four highlights for you personally and/or for your family in the past year.
-three personal/family learnings in 2010.
-two books you especially enjoyed reading
-one goal you have for 2010.
Obviously this is an excessive amount of questions to answer when there are seven of us and we're sending the letter out to a large audience that probably only has a moderate interest in our activities from the last year, but I'm going to flatter myself and imagine that people who read my blog care enough to read my responses. So...here we go.
Highlights:
1. Playing Twinkletoes the (crazy/scatterbrained/funny) fairy in Sleeping Beauty. It was fun to put on a show for the kids from local elementary schools, who make a much more interactive audience than the typical group of adults. (It's always nice to know that the audience is awake.) Evie, who worked as a para at one of the attending schools at the time, told me that several of the kids pretended they were Twinkletoes during recess, and you know what they say about imitation and flattery...2. Directing a production of No Exit, by Jean Paul Sartre. This has been my favorite play since 2008. I had never seen it performed, but it's a really interesting commentary on hell and people and I LOVE IT. It was great to direct again, especially for my favorite script.
3. Although it was rather short-lived I enjoyed the few weeks of summer that I got with Sarah in Minnesota this year. It was so much fun to rollerblade and play speed scrabble and watch Bones streaming on Netflix, and other every-day, but truly enjoyable activities with her. It was almost disappointing when I got the job at the fish processing plant in Cordova, because I was having so much fun in Minnesota.4. Seein
g Child's Glacier in Cordova. Last time I worked in Alaska (Naknek, for those who haven't been keeping track) it was all tundra and the mountains were so far away that I may as well have been working in North Dakota or the ugly part of Montana. This town was beautiful and, although I would never work there again, I would definitely visit and do outdoorsy things."Learnings:"
1. I realized how much I enjoy theater. I participated in several plays at my school this year and enjoyed all of them, each for different reasons.
2. I realized how important education is to me in general and for obtaining a future I can be proud of and enjoy. My summer was spent in a fish processing plant in Alaska and it very quickly became obvious that working 16 hour days standing in one place and doing one task over and over again was not for me. It was hard on me physically and mentally. Definitely not the kind of work I want to do for more than a couple months.
3. I also learned how influential a single conversation can be. Several times over the course of the year I heard friends echoing sentiments I had expressed earlier, sometimes realizing that they had come from me and sometimes believing that it was their own unique idea. It helped me realize how fluid knowledge and ideas are, and how important it is to express oneself well and positively at all times.
Books:
1. Deeply Rooted, by Lisa Hamilton. I read this book for my Environmental Ethics class, and enjoyed it very much. In typical ethnographic style it chronicles stories about three unconventional farmers working in the United States. The book explains problems with farming in the 21st century and then showcases people who are trying to farm in a more environmentally sustainable and healthy way. Really well written and relevant.
2. The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman. Ever since I read the Watchmen I've been getting ever more enthusiastic about graphic novels. My newest kick is The Walking Dead series (which is ongoing) and I love it. The books are about a zombie apocalypse (bear with me). The author writes them not because he likes horror (although he does) but because he wants to explore what happens to people when everything they know and love falls apart. How do people deal with extreme crises and what does that say about us?
Goal:
-I would like to increase my self-motivation to accomplish things more successfully on my own, regardless of deadlines and requirements.
