It does exist.
That idyllic wonderful class and experience I wanted… it does exist.
This time, I had my first assignment in the first week. I had a great partner. He’s suuuuper smart. Super talented. He has a degree from Juilliard! And he was super collaborative. He was excited about my ideas. He chose from a big list I gave him, and we ended up doing this song about marathoning, which I liked.
We got laughs from the class – multiple laughs! It felt really nice, like people enjoyed it. The comments were great (from both the class and the co-moderators). The first comment I got from one of our teachers was “A+ performance!”
Did you hear that?
A+. (Mmm hmm.)
That’s what I live for!
It went over well. Life is good. I also think everyone is so wonderfully wonderful – both their talent levels and their sweet friendship levels. I’m making a lot of new friends. And I’m hearing so many riveting stories and ideas. I love our talks at the bar. Everybody is so smart!
We had a viewing party at my apartment for the movie our next assignment is based off of. I go to the BMI bar after basically every class. The only time I skipped was when I had rehearsal – because that’s right. I booked a paid gig within 3 weeks of the first class.
So, I think people are seeing me as both a performer and a writer. (That’s the dream, right?) And we’re all spending time together and getting to know each other and getting along. I even have a plane ticket to fly back from California with a classmate who’s in a very similar situation to what I was in two years ago.)
Thus far, both of my collaborations have, from my perspective, been very collaborative and fruitful and fun and lovely. (And I really hope both of my collaborators feel the same way.) And I’m loving it. I’m loving every bit of it.
[Edited to add: Even a few nights after this post, we had a random impromptu sleepover with some BMI people. Like, it’s all good. It’s really really super good. And, I’m flying back from LA with one of my classmates. Planes are involved! A new beautiful life is starting to wash over the bad one…]
And, of course, some of that is bitter sweet. But I’m hoping to, soon enough, just let it be all sweet. Life goes on, I guess. And it’s continuing to go on!
(And I suppose I’d thought I’d let anyone who was curious know that even though you’re not getting the play-by-play every single week of my BMI experience… it is going like I dreamt it would. It is possible. And it is happening.)