Slow and Steady Wins The Race
Dear Professor Geoffery,
Your reputation suits you, and I hope you don’t take that in a bad way.
I have known you since Fall of 2018, and first impressions are always the best. You weren’t my professor then, but you had come into my Voice and Diction class to oversee our final script performances.
“This is Geoffery Sheehan, he is in charge of the Performing Arts Program” was how you were introduced to the class and, at that moment, I was nervous to perform my lines.
I watched you that entire time and you didn’t say much until the very end, but what you said before you left stuck with me.
“Take your time and don’t rush.”
In acting, the audience knows when you are giving your all into a character and when you are not. Even though memorizing your lines is a good thing, feeling them is another.
As actors, our work is tough. We have to continuously go over our lines, read it as the audience, read it again as the actor playing the character, and read it until we fully understand why our characters say what they say and do what they do.
However, the phrase “take your time” was becoming a part of my everyday life. When it comes to school, instead of getting overwhelmed like I was before, I now take my time by completing one assignment at a time. I also take my time living my day-to-day life. I stop and think about a lot, who I am and who I want to be. I started to imagine myself as a plant and to grow a plant properly, you need patience.
Having you as my professor has taught me a lot about myself as an actress. To learn how to push myself during certain scenes. To allow myself to feel vulnerable but comfortable at the same time. All of that took time. Even though I am nowhere near where I would like to be in my career, I know that with time and dedication, I will get there.
So I just wanted to say thank you, for not only being a great advisor and professor but a great mentor. Hopefully one day, people will show me respect when it comes to my work the same way they do for you.