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It’s all coming to an end….

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have officially reached the end of my first year at the world famous Drama School of Dreams.

I’m giving up my ‘fresher’ status and becoming a serious, focused second year and as such will no longer have the right to blame anyone but myself for being hungover during daily warm-ups (that’s not to say this will change, I’ll just have to accept responsibility from now on).

In all seriousness…wow. What a year it has been. Those of you who have been following my (mis)adventures will know that it’s certainly been full of ups and downs, never more so than in the last semester, where my classmates and I have had to (supposedly) put everything we’ve learnt into practice and perform our end of year production. I’d love to say it’s been plain sailing, but the truth is… it really hasn’t. I’ve struggled, rebelled, cried, lashed out in frustration and eaten far too many rice cakes in a pseudo-healthy attempt to numb the pain but, based on the performance (last very night!), it appears it was all (whisper it now) worth it.

Yep. I think I might have done something right.  In short, and without wishing to self-promote, I’m proud of myself and what I’ve achieved and, I have to say, it may well be the best.

Seriously, being a mature student at drama school is both harder and easier than it appears.Yes, it is easier – on occasion – to deal with criticism, and to cope with the day to day realities of being away from home and having to bare your soul on a daily basis. On the other hand, it’s difficult – for precisely these reasons. Being older, one has more of an idea of who one is and any challenges to this can be hard to take, as there’s a part of you that rebels against the attack on the person you’ve become and everything you’ve already gone through to get there. Change can be hard but I’m looking at it as discovering another part of myself, as opposed to diminishing what’s already there and becoming a better, more confident person. Hey, drama school’s expensive but it’s still cheaper than therapy.

It would have been easy, at many points this year, to give  up – to go back to my life and try and pick up my career where I left off.

But I didn’t. And I won’t. I’m here for the long haul now and, although I privately disagree with my classmates who “can’t wait to come back” (hey, I’m older, I need the rest!), I’ll be coming back a wiser, more put-together person, ready for the next set of challenges.

I’ll probably still be hungover, though – some things don’t change.

**I’ll be blogging monthly over the Summer as I prepare to embark on a show at the Edinburgh Festival – let’s see how Hamlet2B copes in the land of bagpipes and whisky…**

Gird your loins,

Hamlet2B

Image: Party Poppers