A good friend recently told me over lunch that I was lucky to be moving back to my hometown of NYC to pursue acting, because I only had to learn about myself as an artist within the business. This is in comparison to other recent grads moving to NYC who will have to adjust learning to live in the city in addition to the previously mentioned.
While I agree to a certain extent, I've learned many, many (many) other lessons and skills in the first six months post-graduation. It is very different navigating NYC as an artist-citizen than as a student-artist-citizen, or kid-artist-citizen.
For fun, I've decided to list (and only list, or else this will be a much longer blog post) some (not all) things that I've learned in my first six months of graduating college.
Things I've Learned:
-how to make time for the creative side of me as an artist
-how to make time for the business side of me as an artist
-how to grocery shop during a 16-hour day
-how to get home during the MTA summer of hell without using any apps
-how to rake (thanks to SPACE on Ryder Farm! Hey, I'm a city kid.)
-how to be ridiculously fit
-how to accept being the complete opposite of ridiculously fit
-how to be grateful for living at home
-when to splurge and when to save when it comes to my career
-how to act on-camera (thank you Canedy Knowles at AGR!)
-what it's like to work in an office setting 40 hours a week
-what it's like to be unemployed/searching for a job
-how to absolutely fail at auditions and be okay about it
-how to create my own work outside of an academic setting
-how to make friends outside of an academic setting (that's a big one!!)
-how to make a real and realistic budget
-how to be okay with taking a day job that may not fit with my previously-held positions or "career goals" because I AM AN ARTIST (looking at you, LinkedIn)
Things I'm Learning Currently:
-how to lead produce and act in a short film (pray for me.)
-how to stick to previously mentioned real and realistic budget
-what is worth and not worth sacrificing for my sanity
-how to know when I should choose artistic opportunities over monetary ones
-how to work part-time in a flexible sales position
-how to seek out opportunities that will lead me to the next step of establishing myself and my work through more consistent opportunities
What have you learned lately?
