Entrances and Exits

"All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players.

They each have their entrances and their exits..."

-William Shakespeare

Tonight was the Drama Club Awards for my students. And thus it ends. I have about 7 more days of school and then my first year teaching high school will be a distant memory. I am no stranger saying goodbye to students, but it is always an interesting experience.

Singing "Some Things are Meant to Be" with Sarah, I adore this girl. She is amazing.

I will miss them, they have certainly kept me entertained over the past months.

This is Kyle, so talented!

I wonder what the future holds for them. I wonder how many of them will do theatre in some way. I wonder how many of them will remember the lessons taught, or the feelings felt. I wonder how many will see their dreams come true, feel incredible heartbreak, and loss. I wonder what they will think when they look back on their senior year. Although at times, it has been hard, I am beyond grateful that I played a small role.

What's in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

-William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

I LOVE my name. I mean, c'mon it is an epic name- Kjersti Adeline Oda Parkes. I love it.I love that my initals could be a radio station, "You are listening to KAOP your station for the latest hits..." (Once it was a radio station, in the 4th grade when I made tapes as a DJ... but I digress).

As cool as my name is, it is constantly being butchered. I've heard every possible pronunciation of my name that is in existence. When people first meet me, I tell them to not look at the spelling, just to remember it is pronunced Chairstee (like a chair you sit on, then you add stee, I've recited this so many times that I've now heard other people recite it when they are introducing me to new people.) This usually works. Except now... The school year is almost over and some of the secretaries at the school mis-prononce my name. I am positive that I told them the correct pronunciation to begin with, but now they must have forgotten. Do I correct them or just go on being Keerstee? Or Kristen? Or whatever?

C'mon it's like a chair you sit on and add stee!

I love my name, I love that it makes me ethnic (albeit in a Scandinavian way). But do I go on having it butchered?

Mixed Feelings

Into the Woods opens tomorrow. I am glad I will have my time back. I am just trying to enjoy the moment. I hope they know how much I truly care. It is wonderful to watch others shine, sometimes it is such a process to get to that moment. And here we are, and in a few days all that will be left are memories. And in a few weeks, these kids will graduate. And life goes on...

We're Just Friends

We're Friends...
We're Just Friends...
Summing up an entire relationship in one word, just. It is one thing to say, "We're friends", it it something entirely different to say, "We're just friends." The word just could mean that at one time the relationship was different. It could mean that there is hope for something more. Or it could mean that hope for something more is completely gone.
We're just friends.