Okay, so made my return to Marist April 21 for Festival, the student written/acted/directed one act plays. Damn, I freaking miss MCCTA, which is somewhat disgusting. I have my soul back, this should NOT be happening. Haha, Phil has a tendency to reuse his favorite line from his play the year before in whatever play he’s written for Festival current year. For Speed Demons (the show I was in Sr. year), it was my infamous Marisa-Tomei-influenced-Jewish-LI-accented-”32 hours!” monologue from Gods, In General (his show from Jr. year). <3 I love that Phil writes parts just for me & Steph, hehe. So spoiled. Anyway, this year, he gave Steph the same line from Speed Demons, which I love: “Sane is a relative term. We’re all completely nuts. Some of us are just more forward about it.”

Last year, hell/tech week for Festival just kicked off the greatest month ever. After rehearsal, we’d all go to Eddie’s house & chill out, drink, etc. til the wee hours. And let’s not even begin with the crazy ass, never-ending game of Catch Phrase…(Natalie’s the default winner, haha). Then everything continued to be awesome for the next month, til graduation. I remember constantly quoting one of my favorite movies of all time, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in my away message – the “This is it, Joel. It’s going to be gone soon” part. (“I know.” “What do we do?” “Enjoy it.”) And we all know how rough last summer was for me, trying to grasp that it really was all gone. Admittedly, I was not in a very good place for months after graduation. But I’ve talked that to death in previous posts, I’m so over talking about it right now.

My point is that going back & walking around campus, it was almost like I never left, which was weird. I keep in touch with all my friends who are seniors – and I remember talking to everyone who graduated a year ahead of me at this time last year. Everyone goes through the same thing. They’re all excited, but panicking about graduation & the real world. It’s freaking scary. You start to really reminisce about the last 4 years. How intimidating it was to be a freshman & how graduation seemed to be so far away. Then, bam! Suddenly, YOU’RE the senior. You’re the one that the freshman look up to, are scared to talk to (as Joey put it: underclassmen had this concept that he was ‘all that’ & were amazed if he said hello to them at a party or something & he didn’t get why, until he remembered that he was the exact same way; we all were). Plus, you grow up a lot in those 4 years. Being away from home does wonders because you start to come into your own as a person. I certainly did. Definitely did. It’s strange to watch them all experience the same emotions that I saw the seniors have when I was a junior & felt myself. Now seeing it from all 3 sides, I have a clearer perception that everything is okay in the end. Just as Phil points out about sanity, it really is all relative.

Anyway, it was also Phil’s 22nd birthday, soooo at least I got to see everyone. I was up there for most of the day, met John for a little while, hung with Joey for a couple hours (drove him on a beer run, for old times sake), got to go to the Palace with Phil & Beth for dinner – hooray for sweet potato pancakes! Chilled with Crissy, Steph & Steph. “Slept” on Steph (Speranza’s) couch. Here’s pictures for anyone who actually cares. Note how exhausted I look in all of them, because I haven’t slept in ages it seems. Yay, insomnia.