Stress and Mess

Hey Darling Readers!
I know its been quite a while since I last updated so before I get into the real 'meat' of this post I'm going to go through a quick update on happenings.

First of all, some awesome news! I finally got cast in my first college show, part of the one act festival happening at the end of April. Super excited, not to mention I have the majority of the speaking in the show... which is pretty nice. I also got my scene assignment for my actor's workshop class, from George Bernard Shaw's Mrs.Warren's Profession, in which I will be playing Mrs. Warren in a scene from the end of the play, and my friend Molly will be playing my daughter. I've been taping into my maternal side in this class, in the majority of the scenes I have done I have played a mother or a mothering character. I am still trying to figure out how to keep my dorm room tidy...thats where the mess bit comes in.. its typically very cluttered and scattered, so a lot of my time is being devoted to organization...which is not ideal.

About two and a half weeks ago I got a phone call that kind of turned my world upside down. My maternal Grandmother, who I call "Little" was admitted to the hospital, and when they were running tests they found a nodule that turned out to be cancerous. She has stage 1 lung cancer, which luckily we caught very early on. At the time of this writing she is at the Cleveland Clinic, being taken very good care of. But before we knew exactly what we were dealing with, my whole world was really thrown into a tizzy. I got the phone call as I was walking to class, and I felt like someone had just knocked all of the wind out of me, my stomach dropped. I thought I might puke, or pass out, or both. Its these kind of moments when I hate being so far away from home, the knowledge that it would take me hours to get home during an emergency is terrifying. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to have to rush home, when its already such a nightmare trying to get home for breaks.

This saturday I will be flying home for two weeks! I'm thrilled to be able to recharge and reconnect with CLE and my family. The Cleveland International Film Festival is happening while I am home, so I am looking forward to seeing lots of incredible films, maybe taking some nice hikes and walks in the parks, eating some home-cooked food and the inevitable television binge-watching while knitting or working on my collage projects.

I can't seem to wrap my head around the idea that I am so close to being done with my freshman year of college. It is going by way too fast, and part of me wants to slam the breaks and just take it all in. I had a night last week where it really just kind of hit me that I am doing so much of what I always imagined I would be in college. I have made some incredible friends, I am in a show, I've gotten involved with activities on campus and I'm studying things I simply love. This feeling started to wash over me while I was at the library getting books for one of my term papers (we call them conference projects here at SLC) and I stopped by The Pub to grab some dinner, and I walked back to my room under the wisteria arch, soaking in the sounds of the campus in the evening. I took the elevator up to my floor and opened my door to my room with my key, dumping my books and bag on the floor, climbing into my lofted bed and curling up with my to-go dinner and powering up the Netflix... college.

There were so many things in my way when it came to getting here. So many obstacles and things to figure out. But somehow, someway, I did it. I can see such a huge change in myself from a few months, even a few weeks ago, and I am so excited to see what the rest of this second semester has to bring....after I get a break from it all for a bit of course!

I hope these next few weeks, as the snow begins to thaw and we all come out of our hibernation, bring you joy and light.

-Katrina