I'm taking the plunge...

I wrote this a week ago but am just now posting it, so it is from a week ago's perspective. This is freeing me up to post more often, since I'm finally getting past tour. (Just blog-wise, I'm still having a really hard time letting it go...) October 4th, 2009 Well, I guess it’s about time to actually write this down: The Lion Tour 2009 is Officially Over. Of course, it was over on August 30, but I’m just now getting up the guts to say so. We dove right into school and I’m working on my third production since then (I’ll tell about that later on), and I really have not had any time to write this. But I’ve thought about it for so many days, and it won’t get easier, so I’m going ahead and just doing it. It was incredible. The chance of a lifetime (for me, at least). A huge answer to prayers and years of wishing and wanting so badly. To finally really be Susan, who I’ve been as long as I can remember, on stage, playing my dream role, was more that I ever expected. And more, to travel all over the country, to see so many places I’d only heard about, to really be there and experience travel and life on the road, was more than I ever hoped for. To get to be in a touring stage play, another dream in and of itself, to know what it is like to go and do the same show nearly every day for a whole summer, was something so far off that I hardly dared to wish for it. To get to do all these things together, to play my dream role all over the country, and to have most of my family with me, seeing what I saw and feeling what I felt, was more than I ever imagined I could have. God has given me above and beyond my greatest dreams, and I can never express what it means to me. I made new friends, new pieces in the puzzle of my life, people that I truly treasure and am so blessed to know. I really love everyone of them, and count them as my family now. There’s a song that usually makes me cry when I hear it, but it just says everything I feel toward my tour family. It’s “For Good”, from Wicked, which I have not seen, but I heard this song and loved it. (So, I thought I had a recording of it, but it's not working, and I'll get it on here when I can. Or you can look it up... (: ) Faith, Thad, KP, Aaron, Katie, Krystin, Gee, Raya, and Mr. Payne, I have been changed for the better, because I knew you. Though we may never meet again in this lifetime, you’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart. I’m who I am today because I knew you. I love you all. You are all very dear to me, and I miss you every day. I wish you all the very best in everything you do. What else can I say? I could write more than anyone wants to read about how wonderful this tour was, what it meant to me, and how it has changed me, but I don’t want to write too much. I’ll go back and fill in all those days when I didn’t write anything. I really need to close that big gap between August 6th and 30th. A lot happened, and I do want to tell you, so I’ll try to write that out when I get a minute (or, a lot of minutes!!). Since August 30, we started school at the Teen Learning Center tutorial, which meets on Mondays. (Actually, it started on August 17, when we still had 2 more weekends of Lion shows.) We’re taking some classes there, as well as a few things just at home (we’re homeschooled, by the way, and always have been). It is going well. It’s been interesting to actually have homework!! :) Jonathan and I auditioned for, and made it into, And Then There Were None, the school play this fall. It’s an Agatha Christie murder mystery (long way from LWW!!) He is Rogers and I am Dr. Armstrong. Yes, I’m playing a boy role, but we changed it so I’m not acting like a boy. It is going to be really great. It’s Nov. 5, 6, & 7, and my 18th birthday is the 8th, so It’ll be fun. I also played flute for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown last weekend (Sept. 24-26). The director is also directing the school play, so that was fun. It was new for me (and very interesting) to be in the pit rather that on stage. It was a good show. This week, I am working with the Nashville Opera in Tosca. My mom and little brother (William) are in it. The lady in charge of wigs/makeup is letting me intern, and I get to do wigs for the chorus. It is going to be so cool!!!! It’s at TPAC, which I love. I’ve been around there backstage a few times, with siblings in operas and I sang there once in a choir for the Nashville Ballet. I think that place is so cool, and I love just being there. PLUS, this time I get to actually work there. I’m a little nervous about having to make sure all the adults look just right, when they’re doing their own makeup and putting their hair up for the wigs. Our job is to make sure they all do it right (it’s really specific) and they are NOT allowed to touch the wigs (but I am, though the first time I got within 10 feet of one was today…hmm). So, I kind of have to tell the adults what to do, which is always hard for me, since they are the adults, and I’m still a kid. Anyhow, I think that’s about it. Allison “Susan”