Sun! How could I not be in a good mood? Luckily, I haven’t exactly had to spend the past week sitting inside, suffering from boredom and griping about the lousy weather. I’ve been niiiiice and busy! This past weekend, I had the opportunity to emcee Truly Talented Kids at the Schoolhouse Performing Arts Center with Miss Maine High, Sammi Clark, and Miss Teen Maine Academic, Taylor Santos. Cast members sang, danced, played piano and guitar, told jokes, and performed original skits. The level of talent among these 8-18 year olds was really impressive and as far as I could tell, not a single one of them suffered from any bit of performance anxiety! At one point during the Saturday night show, the background music went out on a young girl while she was singing alone. Without missing a beat, she continued on, acapella, for the remaining minute and a half of the song. How awesome! The show was a fundraiser for the theater, which is in desperate need of volunteers and financial support at the moment. Participating in the performing arts has played such an important role in my personal development over the years, so I hate to see kids in danger of losing their opportunity to take part in community theater, and I hope that Truly Talented Kids brought in a reasonable amount of money for Schoolhouse. I also hope that some of the young girls who I got to know during the run will be participating in the Maine Academic Pageants this summer!
After a day of rest, I was back on the road yesterday, headed up to Old Town High School for a presentation with Project AWARE, a youth empowerment organization that I’ve been involved with since the 8th grade (man, how time flies!). Currently, Project AWARE is collaborating with The Acadia Hospital to develop of a short video about depression and anxiety amongst teens. The video, which will be written and produced by teens and filmed by a professional production company from Portland (Gum Spirits), will engage, educate and empower teens to address the stigma that surrounds mental illness. The video will serve as a powerful educational tool, and the project itself offers many Maine high school students the opportunity to gain experience in script writing, acting, videography, graphic design, film editing, lighting and directing. Project AWARE is also encouraging young people to submit personal stories and original music for the film. From start to finish, the direction of the project will be guided primarily by teens. And DON’T underestimate what they’re capable of! The final product is sure to be incredible. If you’re interested in reading more about the project or seeing clips from some of our past projects, visit the Project AWARE website at projectaware.net :) As the project progresses, I’m sure that I’ll have more to share!
While I’m on the topic of mental health, I also feel compelled to recommend a book that I recently finished by Julie Holland, called Weekends at Bellevue. If you’re looking for a new book to read and you’re interested in psychotherapy, mental disorders or medicine, you should check it out. Julie Holland is hilarious and the book is fast-paced and super interesting. And if you read it and don’t like it, you can go ahead and yell at me for wasting your time….You won’t.
I suppose that’s all for now! It’s time for me to do a little research (Ew!), check out what’s playing for Psych Week, and get some rest!
Shannon
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