We’re past the midway point of the semester. While I enjoy my much needed week long vacation, I must reflect on the progress I have made so far this semester and look forward to where I will go in the second half of this semester.

In my previous entries, I looked at my experiences doing stand-up comedy, joining a fraternity and being part of one of the plays in the Schuster Theater.

Through all of these experiences I have become a more extroverted person; however I still have a long way to go before I can consider myself cured of shyness.

The beginning of the second semester I participated in a stand-up comedy showcase here on campus.  This showcase was done to see who will open for Dave Coulier (A.K.A. Uncle Joey from Full House) when he performs on campus March 27.

I had done stand-up before, but never with something along the lines of a gig.  So, this was very new and exciting for me.  The best part of the whole show was seeing all of my friends from the fraternity and some from high school, come out and support me.

After my performance, they announced the winner.  I was really nervous to see if I would get the spot to open for Dave Coulier. I was excited when I found out that I had won.  I never won a competition before, and I certainly have never opened for someone as big as Dave Coulier before.

While I am a little nervous about the upcoming show,  it’s a good kind of nervous that is making me excited to see what happens in this next part of my life.

In addition to the stand-up showcase, I also participated in the Schuster Theater’s production of White Snake.  This was the first time I had ever done a theatric performance, so I was really nervous going into my first rehearsal. I was even more nervous than I was on rehearsal day.

I was afraid of what the veteran theater performers would think of me. I had some friends in the program already through people I knew from Greek life, including my big from the fraternity I am in, but the rest of the theater kids I didn’t know too well.  I thought they would not accept me due to my inexperience and they would laugh at my inexperience.  While these thoughts raced through my head, I was surprised to find out that this group of people was some of the most accepting group of people I had ever met.

This group of performers gave me tips along the way to improve my acting skills, in addition to this; the group taught me to relax more in a performance atmosphere.  This will be a trick that will help me through my stand-up.  What the theater kids meant by not stressing over everything you mess up, was that what has been done is done, the only thing you can do from that point is to learn from the mistake and go forward.

While this can be applied to my performance on stage through stand-up comedy in addition to theatric performance, it can also be applied to my everyday life.  So far this semester I have learned that there is no point in stressing about things you can’t control.  Stressing over these things can prevent you from enjoying what is happening right now in your life. By letting go, you can free your mind in many different ways that will help you learn from your mistakes and move on with your life and enjoy yourself and the people around you.

In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”