An Update | My Life

Since it’s been well over a year since I last posted anything properly on this blog (Packing Up My Life | Moving Away), I decided that an update on what I have been up to during the past year is very much needed. I have been battling with myself to start the whole blogging thing back up again, as every time I sit down and begin writing a post, it either ends up being scrapped or a whole heap of uni assignment’s are piled on top of me and it ends up being abandoned (seriously, you should see my Drafts tab at the moment- full of posts with just a title!) I’ve decided that, since its almost New Year and all, and my next uni semester isn’t going to be anywhere near as stressful as the last one (6 assessments due in the space of a week was NOT fun), I will *probably* have more time to sit down and write, which is something I have always loved doing and is therapeutic for me. I realised that, to do this, I’ll probably need to give you all an idea as to what’s been happening in my life before I confuse you all by mentioning something in a future post and you’re all like “Wait what since when did THAT happen?!”

 

Well, I might as well begin with all the boring stuff. I’ve just finished my first semester of second year on my Drama course (Being a Drama Student ). Last year was great, came out with some good grades and great friends. I’m now living in a house with 3 people on my course (I was right about my flatmates from last year, the “everything’s great with them” didn’t last long! We won’t go into that though…). This semester was ridiculously stressful, as I mentioned above, but I am glad its over and I know next semester will be so much better, as we are finally doing modules which I feel I will enjoy. I also have my house for next year sorted out; I will be moving in with a girl who lived in the flat across from mine last year and one of the girls who was in the same flat as me last year too.

I also have a boyfriend, who I actually met not long after I published my last post. We’ve been together a year and 2 months now, and it’s all going swimmingly. We went on our first holiday together at the start of September to Tenerife, which I won’t be doing a blog post on as I spent too much time drinking cocktails by the pool than taking pictures! But other than that, we’ve just been doing the usual couple-y stuff, dates and trips etc.

 

As for the blogging scene, I gave up on My Trending Stories (Changes | An Update) as similar as my excuse with this, I just got way too busy and I wasn’t keen on the set out of the website. I may begin posting there again once I’ve got into the swing of things again but, for now, I’m taking baby steps.

Lastly, mental health. If any of you remember the slightly dramatic, slightly agony-aunt-teen-magazine-esque post I did on here around a year ago (which has since been deleted because it was a pile of c**p) then you might be wondering what has happened since then. I still struggle with self-image on a daily basis (I don’t think it ever will fully disappear, it will always eat away at the back of my mind), but it is SO much better since that post. I’d just gone through a fairly awful break up with a not very nice person who’s intention was to constantly bring me down, and as a sensitive person, it really knocks you back. Moving away from home, and ultimately moving (kind of) away from him, helped. But Harry (current boyf) has also helped considerably, as well as finding friends at uni who I know won’t judge me or bring me down, who are always supportive and kind. I’m moving forward, slowly but surely, to being comfortable with myself again. It may sometimes feel like I’m taking one step forward and two back but I am getting there.

I feel like that is enough wittering on about myself for now. My social media, as always, is linked right at the bottom of this page if you are wondering what I have been up to or what I will be up to in the future. As always, if you have any requests for posts or questions about anything I’ve written here, feel free to comment or DM me on social media, I will always answer! I hope to get a new post up within the next week (don’t quote me on it though!) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and an even better New Year!

Iona 🙂 x

 

 

Being a Drama Student

I’ve always loved drama, and since a fairly young age, I’d always known that I wanted to do some kind of career on stage. However, when I started to take acting seriously, and decided to take a path straight into an acing career, I started to realise how much my choice was looked down upon.

People assume that I’ve just decided I want this career on a whim, that I didn’t even think it through. And they couldn’t be more wrong. I wouldn’t be on a college course, learning 4 monologues and a 10 minute duologue within a few weeks, plus taking part in professional shows outside of class, if I hadn’t thought this all through. When people ask me what I want to do as a job, and I answer with “Actor.”, people’s faces drop, and they start trying to suggest other jobs for me to do: ” But acting is such a hard career to get into, haven’t you thought of being a journalist? Or how about an author? Your English has always been good!” No. Just stop. I don’t want to spend my days behind a desk poking at a computer, I want to do something I enjoy. Something I’ve always enjoyed. I’m not in it for the fame or the fortune, I’m in it for the long run. To step onto a stage, and live someone else’s life for a few hours. To make people afraid, happy, angry, upset, confused; to make them forget the outside world, or make them think about what they can do to change it.

And don’t just assume that drama is piss-easy, because believe me, it’s not. It’s one of the most demanding things you will ever have to do. I’m in college all week, from 9 until 4, and I spend all day acting, dancing and singing. In acting I’ll either be rehearsing my 10 minute monologue, or one of my two shorter 3 minute ones. Or I’ll be practicing my duologue, or devising plays. In my spare time (two 15 minute breaks, or my hour lunch) I’ll be researching my characters, writing an in depth character profile (age, looks, aspirations, feelings etc) on each and every one of them. Or I’ll be doing the theory side: working on practitioners like Stanislavski, Brecht or Artaud, and studying how they have changed drama into what it is today, and trying to implement their work into my pieces and writing essays on them. If you come into our dressing room, we’ll all be practicing our dances, or flexibility exercises, whilst singing the song we have to learn for out next singing lesson. Then, when they day is finished, we’ll either use this time as more rehearsal time, go home to write log books, or go to rehearsals or plays we are doing outside of college. Our weekends are similar to this too. So don’t ever say we have it easy, because we sure as hell don’t. It’s physically exhausting, I don’t think there’s ever been a day where I don’t come home shattered or aching. Yet you don’t really see us complaining, we love all of this, and would rather be up on our feet, throwing ourselves around or pretending to be a man, than sat behind a desk trying to remember everything we’ve been taught over the last year.

And, I guess , in that sense, we do have it easy. We don’t do exams, we just do our thing in front of an audience, and we enjoy it. But it is absolutely petrifying. Within that audience, you could potentially have a talent scout, or the director of the original play, and the pressure to play your character right, without completely screwing up, is enormous.

Yet, us drama and arts students still get put on the shelf: over science and maths, we are the lower priority. In my previous school, all the maths students who had won awards for some mathsy quiz were always mentioned and talked about for weeks, but when it came to one of us drama kids preforming in our local theatre, we were ignored. The science kids got new, shiny, expensive science equipment, but we were still stuck with a crappy lighting rig with three lights that worked and a few ripped lighting gels. But how would people cope without the arts? No EastEnders to watch every night, no new films in the cinema, no theatre shows to watch when you’re feeling fancy.

People seem to take us for granted. People don’t seem to understand the amount of thought we’ve put in to getting into this career. Would we really take on the stress and piles of work everyday if we only wanted fame and fortune? If we really hadn’t thought it through? Because, believe me, if that was the case, I would have quit a long time ago!

Inspired by this article, which I spotted the other day: http://thetab.com/uk/norwich/2015/11/06/drama-is-a-real-degree-so-19185

Featured Image: Nell (Jasmine Cox), Rose (Iona Moss (Me!)!) and Jordan Roberts (Foreman) in The Blood Between Us. Copyright: Chris Lewis Photography