These Blogs Come Around Quick

These blogs come around quick, time for another one. I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for this next blog and all find yourselves quoting Lizzo 

“It’s about damn time”.  

I have a lot to fill you in on of the events that have transpired between the previous vlog and this one. However I shall start with possibly the most important thing I’ve discovered not only as my time as an intern but my time on this earth. Orchestrating a photo wall and displaying it nicely is one of the hardest activities you will ever come across. The life skills and inner determination I had to muster during this activity was second to none. Allow me to elaborate. 

At the start of the year I was tasked with putting up standard 6x4 photos as the ASPIRE team had recently moved offices and all the photos had yet to be put up. While waiting for CSO account to be activated I thought this would be a relaxing and low brain requiring activity.  

I’ve never been so wrong. 

Once my account was set up and I had access to emails and the works my time was a bit more pressed and I left the photo wall for another day. That day came at the hands of the new bishop being installed in the Maitland Newcastle diocese. With the possibility of the new bishop sticking his head into the aspire office and seeing blank and boring walls something had to be done. I revised my position as photo boy for one more day. 

It was on this day that I found myself in ways I didn’t know was possible. I can hear the doubtful scoffs through the screen right now as you all read in disbelief that a photo wall could be the making or breaking of a young man… it was. 

The task that seemed so simple quickly spiralled into an exercise in mental fortitude. +400 photos paired with Jess Lopez motivational words and thought prompting acclamations kept me going and pushed me to my extremes. 

Some of the various challenges I faced were; finding out how many photos I would be able to fit landscape ways across the two walls I decorated, determining if I had enough vertical ones to make a line down the middle to make it look a bit more creative, sourcing more bluetak, making creative decisions, problem solving when I didn’t have enough portrait orientated ones to finish the design I started, paint peeling off the walls of the old Bishops Chapel building in which the office is situated. These obstacles pushed me to both my mental and physical extremes. It was at one stage there that I had to put my lunch break on hold because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit and eat and relaxing knowing the job wasn’t done. It came a time where Jess prompted me to let go of my perfectionistic dream of having a perfectly symmetrical photo wall and just push through to complete the task.  

I am happy to report that the photo wall is now finished. I have concurred my Everest and my words to you all is this, You can too. 

All this rambling and I haven’t even got around to mentioning that I had the pleasure of joining the ASPIRE crew on a trip up to the manning to join them on their yearly journey to Taree in which they gathered primary school students from up that way and in two days put on a show that gets performed after the workshopping and production processes. It was a very good experience for me and everyday I am shocked at the level of opportunity I am presented in this intern role. I knew it would be such a good opportunity for me and I would learn so much, but I just gathered as an intern I would play more of a passive learning role. However, I have been given more responsibility than anticipated and have been able to take a hands on approach to theatre and collaborating with others and teaching drama performance skills. This hands on approach has been an absolute breath of fresh air following the strict and stressful conditions that you face as a result of the HSC, definitely more my style.  

Credit to those who made it to the end of this blog, there was a lot of ramble that happened but I cannot under stress how this photo wall changed my life. If you ever want a challenge and have a blank section of wall, I strongly urge you to take on this trial of triumph, this challenge of champions or this battle of brilliance. Fair warning though, you might just become a changed individual. Rehearsals as well are going great, I feel like I should mention that in the blog, all the ensembles are working hard and its very interesting going around to each one and seeing what they are working on each week. 

Can’t wait to see you all in 135 days when the talented teens of ASPIRE take the civic stage for The Pirates Code. 

An Enthusiastic, well fed and changed.  

Patrick Howlett