30 Days of Me: Day 07

“A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you”

I actually thought this was going to be a really easy one, that I’d finally only post one thing to answer the question.
But no.
There’s three things that I couldn’t choose between, so here they all are!

Theatre

In 2004 I transferred schools, moving from one of the best music departments in the city to a school where music was practically non-existent.
All the top-stream students had to take an arts class, I didn’t want to do music theory yet again and hadn’t done art at school in fourth form so that was right out. So I chose Drama.

A picture of my Stage Manager's Desk at 3 Sisters. It's kinda weird thinking back to 5th form and seeing how far I've come.

The classroom was set up like a miniature lecture theatre, with a very minimal lighting rig and the sound provided by 2 slightly tinny speakers.
There were 17 girls in my class, most of whom didn’t actually want to perform but had picked it as the ‘easy option’, so this was never going to be a class that created brilliant performances. I still remember our first assignment. We were split into pairs, given 10 days in which to pick a song and create a performance telling a story around this song.

My partner was away a couple of days before we performed. Everyone else in the class split off, I was left to my own devices. So I stared at the lights, trying to guess what each one did and where it was pointed. The teacher noticed my interest, so she opened the box and helped me figure out how the desk worked. It was the start of a glorious love affair with theatre, now well into it’s seventh year, that’s seen me take on many roles, have a ton of great experiences and meet the best damn people in the world.

Not that I’m biased or anything.

Massey University

The university has been a pretty central institution of my life, more so when I wasn’t a student there than when I was!

A shot of the MUSA Funeral we staged as part of our campaign against VSM last year. About 200 people attended.

Massey is the home of the Manawatu Athletics Track, where I qualified for the Manawatu Team destined to compete at Nationals for 5 years running.

In my 3rd to 7th form years, Massey was also home of the top Women’s Football team for the region. A team so great that they were moved out of our regional division to compete at the Central North Island level. As part of the Federation training (Central-Districts, so like the State team) during my 5th form year, we played against the Massey team. I played as a goalkeeper, pulling off a few pretty sweet saves and generally trying to be awesome. We drew the game at 2-all, a far cry from the 3-0 trouncing we’d received earlier in the year.

Massey is also home to MUSA, the Massey University Students’ Association, where I worked last year as an elected official. I took over the welfare portfolio, womens’ officer by default, and shared the campaign coordinator title with our awesome VP Education.
Working at MUSA allowed me to make a tangible difference for student’s on campus, which was a hell of a feeling. It also gave me a valuable insight into the way NGOs function, allowed me to get experience on the Radio and at the Student Paper, reminded me that paperwork kinda sucks and gave me a really great grounding in a bunch of skills that’ll be mighty useful for the future.

And of course, we can’t forget MUDS which is the drama club that’s full of my beloved theatre kids. They’re insane but the best friends anyone could hope for.

My Family

I know it’s cliche as all hell but I wouldn’t be who I am were it not for my family.
I do, however, use family in the broadest possible sense of the word as there’s a lot of people I consider family who aren’t actually related.

Lots of symbolism in this one. Family kept bees & were known for their gardens. Us drama kids spent a lot of time at the Esplande, were this was taken.

This group of people help me keep my feet on the ground, encourage my day-dreams and delusions of grandeur, sporadically send letters but always send love.
They’ve been there for me when life’s been too much to handle. They’ve come on epic adventures. Shared dreams, food, parties and cuddles.
They’re the group of people that don’t always get me, but love me anyway.

And I love them.

And now for something completely different... MY BROTHER!

Speaking of love, here’s Briony’s entry from today about her favourite quotes.

And I’m looking forward to reading through Sofishie’s post, I recognise the photo so it should be rather insighful.

So, what are some of your main influences?
Leave your comments below! I might even have a little prize for the best one.

’til tomorrow!
Ninja ❤