Failing and Singing

I am bound to fail and I am going to make mistakes, but that is absolutely okay.  This is something I’ve had to constantly remember during my first week of classes that began this past Monday.  Part of creating something or being artistic or just being a person even is failing.  We have to make mistakes and fail in order to get something right.  Then again, it’s not even about getting it right.  It’s about creating something that’s meaningful.  Something that will change minds and create interrogation or complete misunderstanding.  Something that isn’t afraid to be wrong.  Honestly, knowing that I will fail and make mistakes takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders and helps me clear my mind full of thoughts that won’t be helpful in my creativity.

The gorgeous castle from the front
The gorgeous castle from the front

So aside from these great introspective thoughts I’ve been having I also had a week filled with some tourist things that were pretty fun. I had an acting class where we started off our first class with some trust exercise. And what could possibly be a better trust exercise than blind folding someone and leading them into the street full of cars and strangers.  One person would be blindfolded while the rest of us would make the person touch weird things and go crazy places.  When it was my lovely friend Elena’s turn to be blind folded we decided to lead her to the gorgeous Dublin castle, which was a wonderful experience for those of us who could see.

“Do you feel fear and run from the bear or does the act of running generate the feeling of fear.”

Here’s what Elena missed:

A side view of this gorgeous building
A side view of this gorgeous building
Blindfolded proof
Blindfolded proof

Then, this weekend I had an adventure with Elena, her twin sister, and our other friend from the same program, Drew.  We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and took in all the gorgeousness and massiveness that it is.  We walked around the Temple Bar street market and drank some hot apple cider with a little splash of something extra.  Then, for dinner we went to the best fish and chips place in Dublin (oh my god so good), and for the night time extravaganza we adventured the famous tourist trap that is Temple Bar.

Some delicious hot apple cider with a touch of Irish at the Temple Bar Market
Some delicious hot apple cider with a touch of Irish at the Temple Bar Market
Salt and vinegar is a necessity for all fish and chip purchases
Salt and vinegar is a necessity for all fish and chip purchases
Delicious olives from the Temple Bar market
Delicious olives from the Temple Bar market

St Patrick's Cathedral

The gorgeous St. Patrick's Cathedral
The gorgeous St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The live music at Temple Bar was so fun!  At one point they played an Irish song called, “Tell Me Ma” and it instantly brought me back to when I performed in the Irish classic “Playboy of the Western World” at Hope College my sophomore year.  Thanks to that show I was able to sing along.  To anyone reading this who was in that play or saw it will know what I’m talking about!  Then, when the first live music performers left they just had some music playing from a stereo system of the bar.  Then, it was as if they knew there were American theatre majors in the bar because “Summer Loving” from the musical Grease began to play on the stereo system and Elena and I screamed with joy.  We then proceeded to fill the entire place with our loud, obnoxious, and happy voices and sang along to the entire song.

It’s a wonderful world here.

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