I spent the last 5 days on Martha's Vineyard supporting an art festival called Consenses. I stayed in a house with 8 of Boston's strongest artists including 3 of its most prolific scenic designers, the head of the United Scenic Artists' Boston admission committee, a UMass Boston professor, an Emerson professor, the Tufts PM, and the Northeastern TD.

All of this not to brag but to say I was in an environment of a lot of people who were "making it" in this industry. 

Though I'm always the outlier with my non-theatre degree and the "you're HOW young?" questions, I still felt at home with these people.

As I was describing my path and my current "what's after graduation" crisis, the Emerson professor said "don't ask 'what should I do,' ask 'what's important to me.'". Which is of course logical and I've probably read it and heard it a thousand times, but it finally struck me when she said it.

Theatre isn't necessarily important to me. That's weird to say. While theatre is a crucial part of my life, and the stories told in theatre are sometimes important and oftentimes great fun, and I love working in theatre...I guess it isn't necessarily important.

Education is important to me. Education solves huge world issues. I find educational policy fascinating and teaching itself even moreso.

Having a lot of money is important to me. It just is. It always has been. That will not stop in the forseeable future. Even though this week was spiritually renewing, I am hungry right now and I don't have money to eat and that makes my 4 years of struggling through industrial engineering classes very, very angry with me.

I want to teach and I want to be affluent. Still an oxymoronic mission statement, but maybe a slightly more achievable than "I want to stage manage and be affluent."

There is one cue I missed in this opening number... can you find it?