Cheerleaders Never Tire

Towards the end of the trip I would look around me and see ten kids half asleep. I couldn't help but wonder how they could possibly be so tired so easily. I was bouncing off the walls. Plus, it was only 10 o'clock.

It's always been hard for me to start things, but once I start I usually can't stop rolling. I just get in this mode where nothing seems out of reach and everything becomes done. It's so rare because it requires starting, and as I stated before, I just can't start.

I think this explains a lot about my personality beyond getting work done. A long day filled with activities tire most people out, but it just fuels me up more. I can quite literally spend the whole day in bed and not find enough energy to leave the house, but if you get me to do things I could easily stay out all day. This is something I'll need to work on when it comes to getting shit done.

The trip was a ton of fun. My group came a mess, spent the day as a slightly more organized mess, and ended with us all organized and filed back with our friends. We didn't come out best friends, but we don't hate each other. The day was productive, there weren't a lot of inside jokes created but we've all created a mutual understanding for each other. My group resembled a business team of some sort. Nice and efficient, but not all that close.

My main complaint with the whole group thing was the fact that it was done for this trip - a trip that leaves earlier and ends later then most of our trips do, a trip we've been looking forward to since september. I was enraged on thursday, but by thursday night I really didn't care anymore. I just thought, will I really give two shits in a year?

Swan Lake - AMAZING. I've seen a lot of ballets (Whaddup season tickets at Lincoln Center?) but that was honestly like nothing I've seen before. I can't wait to talk about it tomorrow.

Be Kind, Rewind

Boy, was there an improvement in quality in this years Be Kind Rewind movies.

It was only STAC's second time using the Be Kind Rewind protocol, but the difference in films is unbelievable. Some of last years movies we're so hard to follow it was unbearable. Now we're making movies that are not only easy to follow, but you enjoy following them.

The fact of the matter is, we have a whole bunch of newbies, it's been a year since we last made films with the Be Kind Rewind protocol, and it's only our second time using it. This simply shows one thing: when you don't get it right the first time, you better try again - especially if you're a STACie.

The first time you do anything, you're bound to mess up. No one is looking for perfect, so be as experimental as you can. You don't really know what will or won't work, so don't cross anything off the list until you try.

The second time you do something, you're bound to get a hell of a lot better. No one is looking for perfect, but you're going to get really close if you learned from your previous mistakes. We all need to mess up so we can get better.

Dear STAC,

2010:

You are all amazing. You are all talented and creative and intelligent and just plain old amazing. I miss all of you insane amounts; even the ones I didn't really get that close to during the school year.

But the weird thing about the meaning of "that close" in STAC is that it is still incredibly close. When thinking about certain parts of last year I want to break down and cry. There were times where I felt like one person with all of you, like in Jim Bonie's workshop. How close we became was overwhelming.

That being said:

2011:

You are all amazing. You are all talented and creative and intelligent and just plain old amazing. I can not wait to miss all of you insane amounts.

It's a weird thing to say, I can't wait to miss you, but it's true. I can't wait to become so close with all of you that there will be something to miss. We're all going to separate at one point or another, and I just want there to be something amazing to miss when we've gone our own ways.

I know that we will all become incredibly close. I already feel so much closer to you all in the short time we've been here.

Why I'm bringing this up?

As most of you probably already know, old STACies have been visiting the past few days. Nikki (class of 2010) said something about how she tells her friends at Binghamton stories from STAC and they just don't get it. They don't understand. It's silly that I needed some one to go away to college and tell me that before I realized how true this is. I see it everyday. I can talk to my closest friends in the whole world - the people who know me best - and they just don't get it. You really have to be in STAC to understand some things, and thats what brings us so close.

Then while watching To Sir, With Love today I saw a little bit of STAC in the movie. I found a similarity within STAC and the class in the movie. Not because we smoke and curse in the STAC room, but because both STAC and the class in the movie have a "sink or swim" vibe

to them. Just the way the class in the movie was united - they could joke together, they could learn together, they could even stand up against the teacher for one another - was very STAC.

Bottom line: STACies stick together.

Trip Number One!

What everyone talks about is how great the trips are - how much fun you had, how much freedom you were given, etc. Those are the obvious things, everyone loves those things.

What I love most about the STAC trips is talking about it next day. No matter who I'm talking to, whether it's a friend or a parent or a teacher, his or her jaw drops when they hear me speak. You learn so much on these trips that you surprise yourself.

This year, I found myself at iHop with my dad the morning after the trip. After 20 minutes of talking about the chiropractor appointment that we just came from my dad asked me how the trip went. I went beyond the usual teenage answer of "good" and told him everything from MoMA to the social experiment I performed with my group to La Cage Aux Folles. Every word I said shocked me and him, although you think we'd get used to it since this is not the first time I've shocked the both of us with my knowledge of art.

Bottom line, when it comes to drawing and painting, I've always been short on talent. I came into STAC loving art but never being able to create my own. I still can't really create, but my appreciation for art grew a whole lot when I began to say more than "pretty colors" for each painting.