Gradumacation

Why, yes, that is Anthony Ramos from the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton on the right side.

A little over a month ago, I graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. 

Musical theatre school is hard. It makes you question your sanity at least once a day, even after you realize that you are, in fact, insane. It demands so much from you physically, mentally, and emotionally. You go through glorious highs that send you plummeting down to the pits of hell during the lows, only to put yourself back together again and repeat the process.

You give up everything for your craft. You choose rehearsal over cleaning your room. You choose to study Shakespeare over cooking a healthy, cost-efficient meal. You choose singing in an empty practice room over a party. You choose character paperwork over sleep. And all these things you choose and sacrifice out of your passion for that which you do.

But graduation was only the end of the beginning. AMDA may have ended, but nothing else did. I still rehearse and study Shakespeare. I still belt my face off. I still audition every moment I can. Not only because I love it more than I have loved anything else, but because I will succeed in this industry.

Upon graduating from AMDA, I signed the lease for a four-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights and moved in with three Brazilian roommates. Then I quit my month-long job as a barista and signed on for a full-time summer position with the Cheslea Piers figure skating summer camp. Now I work nearly nine hours a day, rehearse in the evenings, exercise when I can, send out auditions for anything I fit, and live life to the fullest every day. 

And though it's a struggle, I'm having more fun than I've ever had before in my lifetime. And that's really saying something.

Here's to a lifetime of fun,

Little Me