I have some exciting news from the blog front! In an effort to improve
the quality and content of my blog—as well as keep myself super busy as I keep
writing my summer series—I have begun an endeavour with some of my friends
they’re calling BlogThings 2012.
In the year between graduating from college and departing for China, I
lived at home and got multiple jobs as a long-term substitute teacher in the
math department of a local high school. As much as I enjoyed it, I found myself
lacking a proper social life. One weekend while visiting my alma mater, I
crossed paths with someone. This someone, although I had never met him, had
become a legend in my mind. I had heard from dozens of people that we had
similar personalities, we reminded others of each other, we would get along
well if we ever met, and that we should be friends.
Luckily, when this pressure cooker of compatibility finally went off, it
was perfection. We became instant amigos with many similar interests—one of
which happened to be improvisational theatre. He said his friends were having
auditions to begin a new group in Lafayette. Even though I lived to far away,
he invited to come to the audition anyway, if for no other reason than to enjoy
an afternoon of improv.
While I appreciated the gesture, I quickly forgot all about it. I
journeyed to Lafayette that evening with my girlfriend at the time to hang out
with my best friend. After a crazy night, we crashed on his futon. We woke up
late and had lunch at a pizza place on Purdue’s campus. Leaving the pizza
place, I noticed a flyer advertising the audition, which happened to be only
half an hour away down the street. I tried to walk away, but the woman I loved
could tell something was up. When I mentioned the personal invitation to do
improv, she insisted that I go.
If I wanted to spare people the details (because my stories are always
too long), I would say the rest is history. However, there is more. I went through
the audition and had an amazing time. I love improv, and these people were
pretty great. My new friend called me after the audition and told me that they
wanted me to be a part of the group. However, I lived over two hours away.
There was no way I could afford to make the drive often enough. Fate was
insistent that I improvise, because there was another member of the group who
was making the drive from a city just east of me. He could pick me up when we
had practice, and we could split the cost for gas.
I was officially a member of an improv group.
Okay, so that story is not the most important, but I tell it because I
want to try to put into context how lucky and grateful I felt to be a part of
this group. I was pretty lonely at home, and through multiple fortunate
occurrences, I was a part of something awesome. I had some new friends that I
bonded with immediately. Not only that, I also grew incredibly close to them in
a short time.
I miss them quite a bit now, and so one way to be closer to them from
far away, I am going to join their BlogThings adventure.
The rules are simple: Each week, someone participating will choose a new
topic and each of the participants have one week to complete and publish a post
about the aforementioned topic.
Because they had already begun this activity before I caught wind of it,
I will be a couple weeks behind. However, starting this week, I am going to do
everything in my power to keep up with the challenge, writing one blog each
week using the given topic. I will be publishing these on this blog, so each
will have to do with my chinadventures.
The first topic to write about is just that: firsts…
If you’re interested in checking out my friends’ posts for BlogThings,
follow these links:
No comments:
Post a Comment