Something to Talk About...

No one talks anymore. It's true. And when I say that...I mean much more than through phone calls. Yes, we text. We tweet. We subtweet. We send messages through our Facebook statuses. We have phone calls here and there. But even then so many things get left out. I think often of the many people in my life who I probably dont know basic things about...like...where they grew up or what their favorite color is. It made me think back to this thing we did when I was in school: pen pals. Ha. I remember pen pals was the coolest thing in the world to me. I remember mine from elementary school...her name was Garvey and she lived in Germany. She put stickers all over her letters and made her "l's" funny. I never though to ask how the heck she learned how to speak and write in English...but I loved getting her letters. She told me about her life and her dog and her family...she also told me about the music she was listening to...which to my 4th grade surprise was the same music I was listening to. It was amazing. I can see those letters so clearly in my mind. So recently I started thinking about why that was so amazing. I think what affected me the most was getting to truly know about another person...and also being able to share my life with someone. We don't do that anymore...we just don't have to. We get to gloss over...abbreviate...or simply leave out parts. And I think that's played a direct part in the lack of true connections in our generation. I know it's what we all subconsciously crave... but no one takes chances anymore. It's a risk to share who you are with someone...even if its a complete stranger. I have no idea where Garvey is now...she's probably somewhere blogging and listening to The Script's cd in its entirety (she had a lot in common with me so I'm going to just say we're doing the same things)...but one thing's for sure...I am glad that she was my pen pal...she taught me the importance of communication. Communication helps with learning, learning promotes growth. Growth begets healthy relationships. Healthy relationships equals happier people. See? Get a pen pal. Trust me. It helps.

16 friends I won't forget.

it's cold in california. no one thinks that's possible. but it is. it's very possible. it gets freezing cold here at night. well my post is not at all about the weather in california. I just thought i'd mention it because...it's my blog. I really want to say how much I miss my classmates. Some people may not know what a program like the one I attended is like. It basically goes like this: you come to a city as a teenager...get thrown into a program with 19 other strangers...and during the first two weeks of school you laugh, cry and learn together...and then you spend the next 4 years as a family. And then when you graduate you're supposed to learn to live without them. it's all very abrupt and heartless. lol. No seriously, my group ended up being only 17...we lost 3 classmates after our first year (lost as in they left the program not as in they left the earth) and they became my brothers and sisters. We even fought like siblings. Here we are:

so many of us from so many backgrounds. an amazing group of talent of all kinds. i learned so much from these kids. they each played a role in the actress/artist I have become. i stole from them. i grew with them. i travelled the world with them (literally we all flew to London to study acting our junior year and then travelled through Europe). it's been a year since the last time i saw most of them and i really miss the hours on end we'd spend in classrooms together...in rehearsals trying to break down our acting walls and make shows work....on stages leaning on one another and praying to God you didn't laugh during a scene (yes even classically trained actors have a fear of laughing during a scene...its called living in the moment...dont judge. ha.). the short of the long of it is...these people were more than classmates to me. and they still mean the world to me.