I was sitting in front of my computer yesterday morning, just thinking of what to put in my write-up for our thesis' souvenir program. Heck, I didn't want to recycle my old write-up from last year's program, so I decided to make a new one. (Thank you for the help, Teena!)

Looking back on my first year as a stage crew member, I couldn't help but smile. I was a shy, starstruck newbie who was usually quiet unless Lea Salonga and the director wasn't around. I was kinda timid, not knowing what to do, so there was never a day where I would ask a million questions about what to do with what, complete with question marks all over my face because of all the theatre jargon.

Skipping to a couple of months after that, I became an assistant teacher, assistant director and part-time stage manager for a basic musical theater class composed of pre-teens and early teens. Once again, I was quiet, and I had difficulty being firm to my students. I left it all to Myles, the head teacher, and Rony, our repetiteur, to handle them. All I could was say, "Quiet backstage!" every once in a while.

Fast forward to this year. If you hadn't seen the development over the past couple of years, it would be hard to believe that I was the same person. I finally had confidence in myself, and I knew what to do without any questions. I wasn't quiet and timid anymore; I learned how to be firm (being mataray is still in the works, hahaha!), and half the people I know can't understand all the jargon I've learned from my teachers! Holy kamote, hahahaha... I was actually surprised at myself these past few weeks. For someone who didn't know how to get mad, I could sometimes see my eyebrows knit together at the slightest hirit of a space-case (there's always one at every show, wahahahahahaha!), or if something doesn't go my way.

Hahaha, looking at the word "space-case" in the previous paragraph made me laugh. Every time we encounter one of these people, I could practically hear Miss Bernice's voice in my head saying, "Hay nako! Never mind, never hired!"

Anyway, people-headaches and pressures aside, it's all good.

*Thanks to my Atlantis family, Trumpets and my SDA teachers who taught me everything I know. Uber-thanks as well to the people I've worked with. It's a joy to be with you guys.