Rounding up on almost a year since I updated this thing, so quite a bit has happened since then. I'll do a little brief update on everything that has been happening:
House Managing at ETC was possibly the best part of the year. I was able to work through the entire season until June, where I was able to learn and grow in my career and future. I was blessed with an incredible company full of genuine and caring people, and a season of some of the greatest shows I'll ever be able to have a part of! ETC was so good to me, and it is because of them that I've got the work ethic that I've come to have.
I finally went on a college spring break this year too! Gabrielle, Hannah and I took a Royal Caribbean Cruise to Nassau, Coco Cay Island, and Key West. I haven't been on a cruise since I was maybe 12, so I was verrrrry excited. It was one of the best vacations I have been on, with some of the best friends I will ever have. We played games, ran around the ship, got tan, gambled, met some friends, and basically partied for a straight week. It was just what we needed during our chaotic senior year of college. Pictures below!
Later in the year, I accepted a summer position as the House Manager at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Big move for me way up north! I'll get more into that later though - first, I had to graduate. This was probably one of the top moments in my entire life. To be done with school forever? It was, and still is, really difficult for me to grasp. It's strange with everyone going back and posting about classes, and while I miss the freedom and college life, I definitely do not miss being in school!
After this came Abbey Road on the River. This is a yearly Beatles festival that takes place over Labor Day Weekend in Louisville, KY.
Heather and her mom flew up for the five day fest which was amazing. The last time Heather and I saw each other, we were hugging goodbye in the Heathrow Airport leaving our study abroad experience. It was literally one year to the day from the last time we saw each other. The fact that we basically spoke constantly, probably daily, during that year really shows how good of friends we had become.
It was so exciting seeing them, and to go along with the reunion, The Shakers and The Rockits came from Liverpool to play in the festival too! And we got to see Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits, meet him, as well as Laurence Juber and Denny Laine from Wings, Tony Bramwell, and Peter Asher. Peter went to school in Westminster, so clearly he, Heather and I bonded over our past homes. All in all, it was one of the greatest weekends of my entire life. 24/7 Beatles concerts all day, and when they finished up, there were nightly jam sessions in the hotel lobby bar. People from different bands would all bring their instruments down, group up and just start playing. Someone would shout out a song and everyone would chime in and get the music together, and the rest of the folks who came to see the shows and hang out would stand around, enjoy the music, and sing a long. It was beautiful, which is a weird way to describe it, but there were so many different people, from different places all over the world, coming together over a love of the greatest music in history. The entire festival, the entire weekend was beautiful. And fun. So, so so much fun.
Literally, the day after the festival ended, I was en route to Massachusetts for my summer. It was an incredibly hectic, busy, and a bit stressful of a summer, but I was able to meet and get to know some incredible and talented people.
If I were to describe my summer, it would be Big Kid Camp, where everyone works their asses off for 10 hours each day. We lived in shantys in the forest without air conditioner, sharing our rooms with the spiders in the corners, but being able to spend it with so many people from so many different places was incredible. I was able to learn about myself and what I am capable of, understand where I'm flawed and what I need to work on in a business setting, and ultimately grow.
It was a roller coaster, but I am so glad I was able to have the experience. Oh, and I got to get on the roof of the theatre, which was pretty sweet too.
While I was in Massachusetts, Heather and I had been in talks to trying to get a job and move back to London permanently for a while. We made the decision to go ahead and plan a trip, and work reallllly hard in the time before then to get some interviews and meetings with potential companies.
Our amazing, amazing parents bought our plane tickets as 'we will give you this shot to try and make your dreams come true' presents, and we began planning.
It is two weeks from this day that I will be boarding a plane and flying back to London, and I still can't believe it's real. It has been a year and a half since we lived there, and I've missed it more and more every day. Both Heather and I have been hard at work trying to connect with UK businesses - it's very difficult with work visas as Americans, but we are still hopeful and persistent. I can't wait to be able to get back there with Heather, and walk the streets as if we never left. It's going to be an amazing trip - and to add into it all, we'll be going up to Liverpool for a weekend, and if you've read any of my blog posts, you know how much I love (am obsessed with) Liverpool.
So that's been my life so far, cliff note version. It's been a wild year, but it's also been a great one. Hoping good things are to come in the near future, and will be updating this much more - especially since I've got some more adventures abroad coming up!