Pretty, Smart, Poetic

Pretty, Smart, Poetic is a play written by Brigham Mosley (B.F.A.’10) for the 2010 SMU Meadows School of the Arts’ New Visions, New Voices student production.

The only reason I saw Pretty, Smart, Poetic was for extra credit in my theatre class, Mirror of the Ages. Mosley is a Teacher Assistant for my class, so it was interesting to watch his vision and what he had created on stage. I am not interested in the theatre or the arts whatsoever. However, I left Mosley’s production rather satisfied.

In summary: Pretty, Smart, Poetic is the story of three girls: one pretty, one smart, and one poetic, and their unbalanced and unhappy life as a result of their dad’s overprotection and his desire to love and to be loved. He loved his daughters so much he did what he thought would protect them by over exaggerating their talents and lying about their deceased mother. He placed special emphasis on his girls’ extraordinary talents, or really what they had been told to focus on by their father all their lives. This only led to resentment of their father and unintentional pain inflicted on his daughters.

The play generated questions concerning the complexity of human identity and love. According to Brandon Sterrett (B.F.A’10), a critic and scene shop assistant for Pretty, Smart, Poetic, “Having logical thoughts, artistic souls, and physical bodies makes us humans endlessly complex and exasperatingly messy”. The moral of the story is enjoying a balanced life, and living because you want to, not because your parents force you to.

I think we all can relate to the story. Fathers never mean to hurt their daughters, nor does any parent. We have all experienced pressure from our parents in one way or another, and may not have known necessarily how to deal with it. I encourage you all to love what you do and have that balanced life needed to be happy.

I'm so happy, I could cry...

I know these blog posts are suppose to focus on controversial issues to create some type of debate or something, but for some reason I find myself inclined to write about my feelings.

For the first time in my life, I have nothing to worry about. Growing up I have had to worry about going to practice for gymnastics, and even in college with cheerleading… it gets exhausting. It has been two weeks now since Nationals and the year is flying by. One full week of classes until exam cramming begins.

Beyond the shock of surviving my freshman year of college, lies surviving an entire year in the dorms. I honestly cannot believe my roommate and I have not killed each other yet.

It is all coming to a close. We are packing up and moving out. I am definitely sad it is over. And, even though summer and all of its excitement are near, I will miss seeing everyone. It is hard going to school with people from all over the country and knowing I probably will not see half of the friends I have spent all year with for the next four months of summer.

On the upside of things, we have all summer off, which is really exciting. I cannot wait to move into my house close to campus for summer school either! Seeing my friends from home also adds to the suspense leading up to summer.

Before you know it summer will end, and after that, the school year begins again. Recruiting all fall semester as a sophomore is something I know I am looking forward to, and meeting the new class is always fun.

For the first time in my life, I have nothing stopping me from having fun. I can find something positive to look forward to at the end of the school year, which is something that does not usually happen.

It is all so bitter sweet. It is time to close up the year and go home. It will all start again soon.

But hey, I have nothing to complain about… I guess this is what it feels like to be a full time college student…