Back to school

I love autumn.  And I love back to school.  And I'm sure those two things are related. Yesterday was the first day of a five-week acting class I'm taking at ESPA - the educational arm of Primary Stages.  I got really nervous - about the whole thing - and I kind of clammed up, but I left feeling like "why was I nervous about that?" which, really, is a testament to my delightful classmates and to our teacher, Andrew Leynse.  At the top of class, Andrew paid some lip service to class being a "safe space."  Even though, when the shoe is on the other foot and I am at the front of the room, I really believe in the "safe space" classroom, when he said that, I rolled my (internal) eyes a little.  "Safe until I really take a risk and you write me off as too kooky or quirky or something?"  What's got me feeling so optimistic, though, is that by the end of the class I thought "he really means it . . . and I think he might pull it off!"

Who knows how risky I will or won't have to be in the coming weeks, but I'm looking forward to learning what there is to learn from this class.  Hopefully I can learn to be a little less nervous along the way.