March has been a wild ride of highs and lows. Highs came from starting to collect pieces and parts for a costume I wanted to make for a show in April, having my third paint lesson, and celebrating my birthday.
The lows came in the new reality that is life staying at home and dealing with the COVID-19 virus, now pandemic. By the end of the second week of March we were told to stay home. That following Monday school was announced to be online to finish out the year and no one was allowed back on campus. The new normal is total self independent work without the ease of walking up to another person to brainstorm ideas. It’s tough but thankfully it’s easy to talk to everyone using the internet.
Another low was the cancellation of the class play everyone had been working their butts off to get ready for the April shows dates. Everyone worked hard to learn their lines and really get into their characters. A group favourite was Chief Chow, a Swedish chief with very odd recipes.
The one that hit hardest was Otafest, where I’m a staff volunteer, was postponed to 2021 because of the virus. That one struck hard because everyone there puts so much work into it and it sucks but safety has comes first. It didn’t help it was announced after my birthday. I care about this event. I know next year the team will knock the show out of the park. Another event that’s been postponed to later in the summer is Calgary Expo. Everyone figured it was going to happen because of the current ban on public gatherings but until March 23 no one knew what was going to happen.
But let’s talk about the positives that happened in March. I need to focus on those to remember that things can and will be okay eventually. I had my third lesson in learning technique for painting miniature figures and painted my largest mini to date, an owlbear, and put the finishing touches on my first painted mini soldier. That was a relaxing three hours that I’m holding onto now.
I finally built up the courage to start a cosplay for an amazing character for Calgary Expo. Even with the show postponed it just gives me more time to work on the cosplay and not be stressed out. Mollymauk is a dungeon and dragons character from Critical Role. It’s where a “bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons”. He’s a out, proud, and loud purple horned circus man who wears a rainbow of colours.
I was able to get the tail made by the amazing cosplayer Mayxcosplay from the Netherlands. I am beyond happy with it and can’t wait to (eventually) show it off. Sure, there are more pieces to get that will take time (international shipping) but it gives me something to think about once I’m done with schoolwork. When the curve goes flat I’ll be able to jump right back into ordering what I want for the costume.
With the good and the not great things happen there’s been the stabilizing force that’s been my instructors. They’ve been beyond amazing in figuring out how take over a month of classes and translate it into online learning. The amount of stress they must have been under to pull it off in only five days must have been insane. They pulled it off and now the rest of the semester doesn’t seem so impossible. Deadlines were moved and modified. VPN’s are being fixed so all programs needed for class are available. I never realized how much I would missed Audition after using it the last 5 months.
I’m not worried about the semester and getting ready for next year because I trust my instructors and I know they trust me. Besides its good practice if I ever have to do something like this once I’m in industry.
I’m doing my best to flatten the curve by not going anywhere that I don’t need to go, other than grocery shopping. March has been a roller-coaster but I’ve got the tools be to strapped in for the ride. Fingers crossed the ride smooths out come the end of April.
Radio in Training 