My Year in Review

I always find the passing of any sort of time milestone interesting. On the one hand, time is a human invention. Cats don’t really care if it’s 11:03, what they care about is if it’s feeding time, and if it’s not feeding time when why isn’t it yet feeding time. But humans have set up an entire system based on the idea that it’s 11:03, and that it’s perfectly acceptable to each lunch at 11:00, but not 10:59, so yes, cats, 11:03 is technically time to eat.

New Year’s Day is no different, really. At some point, 2016 years ago, someone set up a calendar and said that the year they were in was 0. Now that it was 0, the next year would be 1, and so forth. I’m sure it made the year end recaps sort of interesting, but at the end of the day it was what someone decided. Thus, the concept of time as more than a method to show when it was safer to plant crops or that you’re less likely to encounter a bear was born.

I don’t know too much about this. I’m making things up for dramatic effect. But the bottom line is, eventually the passing of one year to the next became a giant celebration involving hats and standing outside in a cold city WAY longer than our ancestors would have. In fact, they would have taken the cold as a sign that they should probably be inside.

It’s always surreal for me when time changes like this. I do reflect back to when things change like this. Big moments usually denote some kind of chance to think back and wonder… where they hell the time went. Did I waste it? Or did I spend it doing something important, or at least what I consider important? (Doctor Who Marathons aren’t going to watch themselves, people.) And yeah… this year was important.

When I did quit my internship for the many reasons I’ll eventually be brave enough to tell you, my mentor teacher did request that I tell the class why it was that I was quitting when I did. I told them the truth, because at that point what truth wasn’t I going to tell them? I wanted to study abroad, I wanted to do something different, I wanted to write. I wanted to present papers at conferences, and get published.

Other than get published, 2015 is the year that I did all of that. 

I went to England to study theatre. Not just watch a few plays, but immerse myself in it in a way I never thought possible, even going so far as to travel to Stratford Upon Avon… WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S HOMETOWN… to watch a play written by the man himself. I was able to walk around the streets of London, Cardiff, Edinburgh… for no other reason than I was a scholar, studying what I wanted to study. I went to Ireland to study great literature, to learn how to hon my craft, and to learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guiness. That last part wasn’t school sponsored, although I went there with my instructor. But I left the country to study twice this year. Seriously, for two whole months out of the 12, I was in Europe, and had access to much getter chocolate. I’m just saying.

I taught. I started my own tutoring business, which got a lot stronger this year. I’m up to four families I’m tutoring, and all of them are making great improvements. But 2015 is also the year that I managed to teach at the college level! I taught my first college level class, and it was strange but pretty amazing. It was also chock full of Firefly and Simpsons references, as one might expect from a class taught by me. 

And, of course, I continued my studies, taking amazing classes in Literature, studying with world known instructors. One of my instructors even managed to help me present a paper at a conference, and the Cultural Conference will forever know more about Green Arrow thanks to me. Whether that’s good or bad, you’ll have to ask them.

My whole point is, at this time of year its easy important to focus on the good. I travelled far this year, metaphorically and literally, logging more hours on an airplane and going forward to reach my goals. And the thing is, I didn’t really realize it while it was happening. I just sort of… went with it, and it made the year that much better. I still have a ways to go, and I have big plans of what I’d like to accomplish as this year starts up… but this past year has proven that I can do it.

This is also the part of the year when people make resolutions. Little things they hope to change in order to make their lives better. Lofty ones, like lose weight or read more, and then without a definition of what they are, they continue to slide until it’s November and they wonder why they haven’t reached that goal. I’m not saying don’t make those resolutions. I’m just saying slow down a little bit, and make smaller ones, one’s that you’ll keep. 

As for me? I know why I want to do, mostly to lose weight and start reading more. Of course I have to narrow it down. But for my resolutions… well, I’m going to be making some changes. That I’ll probably be posting here, on Bad Shakespeare, as they happen.

Looking forward to a wonderful New Year, everyone. Here’s hoping 2016 is just as exciting.

See You in 2015

Ladies, Gentlemen, and future historians who are reading this blog to find out the inner workings of my mind before I became super famous, I wish to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a Joyful Hanukkah, a wonderful Kwanza, or, if you don’t celebrate any of that, then Happy Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday. If you don’t celebrate any of those things, then I’m sorry the banks and restaurants are all closed on what to you, is a regular Wednesday, but I don’t make the rules.

Originally I had this wonderful plan in my head to chronicle the adventures of Bad Shakespeare in real time as I traipsed through London, as I walked through the great streets made famous by Guy Ritchie in his shoot ’em up bang bang thrillers, as I studied with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as I made an excursion to Scotland, and hopefully as I get to meet Emma Watson who is probably in England doing Emma Watson things. And if I got the chance to walk on an episode of Doctor Who. They’ll just let me walk on, right?

Then I realized that I’d be doing all of those things, and while it would be exciting to chronicle my adventures as they happened, I wouldn’t get to fully enjoy all those things as they happened. 

As a result, this will be the final Bad Shakespeare entry until after January 20th, when I make my triumphant return to the United States. 

I want to thank all of you to thank you for taking the time to read my musings every week. It hasn’t been as consistent what with the whole “Graduate School” and “Gilmore Girls coming to Netflix” thing, but I’ve tried to post as much as I can. But writing 20 pages on whatever it is I wrote 20 pages on this semester tends to take time away from writing about our new North Korean Overlords, which, while amusing, doesn’t get me the grades i need to be getting in order to graduate from Graduate School.

I’m in a very different place this year than the last. Last year at this time I was gearing up for student teaching, now I’m gearing up to study Theatre in a city I’ve been dying to go ever since I found out there was a London and that they had actual Kings like back in ye olde times. (Well, a Queen, who’s apparently a Highlander.) 

Anyway, I hope to take every opportunity presented to me, and yes, I will share it with you at some future date, probably when I’ busy with some paper and I don’t really know what I’m going to be writing just yet.

Enjoy the holiday, reach out to those less fortunate, call up an old friend, tell someone you love them, and I hope the New Year finds you happy, healthy, and full of friendship. I look forward to posting my adventures more in the New Year. 

Just going to take a little break

Benson, Robert Frost, Firefly, and Star Trek. Possibly the Best Year End Post, Ever.

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”  -Neil Gaiman

So, here we all are, the end of the old year, and the beginning of the new year. It’s a time for resolutions, it’s a time for promises, it’s a time where we reflect on the past year, on past accomplishments and past... well we won’t really call them “failures” so much as “oopsie daisies.” 

I’ve always found it both odd and interesting that we take this time to reflect. On the one hand, nothing really changes. Today is Monday, tomorrow will be Tuesday no matter what the calendar says. Same bills are due. Rent is due. All that really happened is that when someone asks me the date I’m going to type 2012 instead of 2013 for a little while, much in the same way that sometimes I’ll accidentally type “February” when we reach January 31st. Really most of the Earth stays the same.

But on the other hand, it is another year, insofar as we understand time, gone. We do have a need to recognize time gone by, whether it be some kind of anniversary (That I swear I’ll remember this time) or birthday (until you reach 39) or some other significant event that you want to recognize (11 years since Firefly was taken off the air. We want your adventures back, Captain Mal.)

The other interesting concept is the idea of New Years Resolutions. I used to enjoy making these, back when the stakes were lower. I mean, “Hey I want to get in shape” means something different. But I don’t like making them now. Not that I think people should, (especially me) but because they’re so easy to break. Yes, I made a promise to myself I’d write more, but there’s this Firefly marathon on, and I don’t want to miss an episode that I’ve already seen twenty times. (Damn you, Joss Whedon!)

So, this year I have decided I’m not making any resolutions. I’m not making easily breakable promises that I’ll forget in a couple of months and chalk it up to “Not keeping my New Years Resolutions”. No, the Twenty Twelve Michael Bay Explosion Monster really did a number on me. And the only way that things are going to get better is if I make some changes. Real changes that will improve my life and ensure that there’s no Twenty Twelve Michael Bay Explosion Monster Part two. I’m at the point that I need 2013 to be better for my own general sanity. So I’m not making resolutions. I’m making actual promises that I must keep. There is no other option. So...

I promise to actually start do do more with my writing. Yes, I blog here at Bad Shakespeare, and I will continue to do so. And I love each and every one of my readers, thank you for following these adventures. But I need to do more. I need to finish my comedy novel that got mired in my own melancholy and was stalled. (That’s a good line. Remind me to do something with that.)

I promise to finish my degree and become a teacher. I’ve spent a good number of years learning what I’m not good at. I’m an ok editor. I’m a pretty good writer. I’m a so-so government acquistioner. I suck at working at Best Buy and as a Lifeguard. But I’m an excellent teacher. I love literature. Keeping me out of a classroom is bad for me. I have so many ideas, some original and some standing on top of desks like Robin Williams in that one movie.

I promise to do more that scares me and makes me uncomfortable. Like all of life’s big questions, I usually turn to the philosophy imparted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. (Two science fiction references in one post! Score!) In it, Constable Odo, who’s a shapeshifter, was a blob of goo that was found by a scientist. The Scientist “tortured” him until he finally showed him that he was a living, thinking creature that could shapeshift into the guy that played Clayton on Benson. The kicker was the scientist wasn’t torturing him. Odo loved being a blob of goo. That was comfortable to him. It was being uncomfortable and challenging himself that allowed him to eventually become humanoid, then help round out the cast of the best Star Trek series on television to date. We all need to be a little uncomfortable or scared. Taking the well-worn path is easy. Look at the Frost Poem “The Road Not Taken”. While people love to quote it and hold it up as an example of adventure! Of course once you read it you find out that the speaker has decided to just call the path he took as the one less travelled. Probably to impress the ladies. So rather than just saying I’m taking the scarier path, I’m going to actually take the scary path.

Star Trek, Benson, and Robert Frost in one paragraph. I’m on a roll today!

There are more, and I will update you all on them as they occur. From me, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, exciting, wonderful, unsafe, book reading, suprising, adventure filled, twitterpaited, gravity-defying, goal breaking, path not taken, Cow and Boy reading, Yippie Kai Yaying, Bad Shakespeare reading, Firefly-watching, Benson-referencing 2013. 

And as for you, Twenty Twelve Michael Bay Explosion Monster... you didn’t win.