12 THINGS I SECRETLY MISS ABOUT BEING AT DRAMA SCHOOL

Hawwwooo it’s me again.

That was in my dog voice. Don’t know if you read it like that but if you didn’t go back and read it again. Geddit?

All these long dog walks on my own get my mind thinking about a million and one things; what shall I have for dinner tonight? Did I put deodorant on this morning? I wonder why the sky is blue and is the sea just a reflection of the sky? (It’s not, I looked it up)

It also get’s me thinking about past, present, future. I’m getting married next year, flipping heck. N’aw one day I’ll have a baby that’ll sick all over my shoulder. And doya remember that time I went to Drama School and lost myself in all things CREATIVE for three whole years? Lol lol lol.

And yesterday I spent a whole 1/3 of my dog walking duties (that’s an hours worth FYI) thinking about Rose Bruford. The place where my soul grew a little bit happier and any self conscious barriers I had were pretty much demolished (what? You want me to touch other people where? And take my clothes off? Okay.) Slight exaggeration, but you get the gist.

And although that ship has sailed (even if a certain tutor says it never really sails and the doors still open) I still look back on that time with a huge sense of fuzzy fondness.

Here’s the 12 things I secretly miss about being at Drama School:

 

1.Seeing pals everyday, at all hours of the day – I miss you all. Even the people I felt like face palming. The thing about student life, especially at Drama School, was that you spent so much freakin’ time together (in class, waiting for class, the library, at halls, in the canteen hanging out with the twins). And you kinda ran out of things to talk about so in the end, you just started talking shit to eachother. And I totally miss that. Seeing the same 40 people a day and just rambling on about absolutely nothing.

2. Open Mic Nights. I’ve been to my fair share of festivals and live music nights. But I can tell you, hands down, that nothing even comes close to a Rose Bruford open mic night. That atmosphere, the camaraderie, the flipping talent – oh my gosh it was insane. It used to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I remember thinking ‘this is sooooooo cool’ and I’d try to capture it on video on my phone, but you just couldn’t capture that kinda magic. You had to be there.

3. Wearing active wear 24/7. I mean, things have kinda come round full circle now because oh look, hey, I’m back in active wear 24/7. Living the dream. But I remember this being something I totally missed when I left. What? I can’t roll out of bed and chuck on some joggers to start my day any more? Oh mannnn.

4. Stretching every morning. Imagine if at every work place you rolled in, said hello and took to the floor to do some downward dog & child pose? Imagine if you jacked in the 30 minute coffee making & chit chatting for 30 minutes of breathing and stretching?

5. Being able to do some seriously weird shit and no one even batting an eyelid. Wanna make a puppet? Do it. Wanna run around campus as a clown? Cool, man. Wanna get naked and cover yourself in baked beans? Right on. I mean don’t get me wrong, everything meant something. We weren’t just doing weird shit for no reason, were we? Lols. Whether it was for shits & giggles or not, it was ace being in an environment where no one judged and you could experiment with whatever you liked.

6. Meeting people from all over the shop. Different nationalities, different backgrounds, different stories. There’s so much to be learnt from mixing with people so far from what you know. I’ve heard stories about what it’s like living up North, living on the Shetland Islands, living in Iceland & living in Norway. I’ve learnt songs in different languages and spent time with people who are culturally so different to myself. It was eye opening and refreshing. One of my biggest regrets is not staying in touch with many of these classmates. Although I know, as is the ETA way, that if I needed a place to crash in Scotland/Spain/France/Iceland/Norway heck, even up the road in London, I could call on these people and they’d probably be a slice of floor I could bed down on.

7. Stretching my brain. Being introduced to new ideas and questioning things I thought I knew about, but apparently didn’t. Checking out so many books from the library that you did yourself a shoulder injury trying to get ’em home (all the while being super frowned upon by Frank the librarian like he KNEW I wasn’t gonna bring them back in time). I miss reading for intellect. I miss being lectured at. Someone come round and lecture me, god dammit.

8. Achievement on a mass group level. The closest I get to this now is winning a netball match and celebrating with my 6 other team mates. But back then it was 40 of us, all finishing a performance module, having a sing song around the piano kinda atmosphere. That euphoria. Mate, it was epic.

9. Something always going on. Whether it was political speeches in the courtyard, light installations around site or, dare I say it, the wonderful yearly Symposium Festival – the place oozed with life and art and frivolity. That sounded super wanky but it just came out and I’m not gonna backspace it. I won’t. Why don’t I walk down the road and come across happenings and poetry?

10. The gossip & scandal. Adult life gossip just doesn’t compare to student life gossip does it?

11. The chips on the way home from class with THAT garlic mayo. Nothing quite like doing three hours of weird stuff in a black box and then coming out to some fresh chippys and allllll the garlic mayo. You could legit taste that stuff in your mouth for days.

12. Two for Tuesdays. Pizza, pals, video games. Nuff said. Why don’t I do this anymore?

 

Whoa, I just spent two hours in reminisce. I gotta go walk some dogs. But it’s been nice revelling in that space for a while.

If you’re reading this and you’re about to start at Rose Bruford – you lucky, lucky thing you. Enjoy every bit of it.

Happy Throwback Thursday everyone.

1 Comment

  1. Ana
    29th September 2017 / 9:28 am

    Awww this was lush to read ❤️❤️❤️ I miss Rosey B!xx