No one I meet has ever heard of it, but Aida is, to me, the best musical ever written. You have no idea how much jealousy consumed me when I learned my parents had seen it years ago when it first came to Chicago. I would give anything, anything, to see it live.

It is essentially a love story between two star-crossed lovers (sound familiar?). The story does resonate with many I have heard before, but the music sets it light years apart from anything else. Suffice it to say, Tim Rice and Elton John have a real gift. Continue reading →

I’ll be honest. Although I love dancing, I have been nervous to take class over break. Lack of sleep coupled with a mild sinus infection and overall lethargy have been hard obstacles to overcome. Plus, I haven’t danced since summer. Jumping right in could be downright ugly.

But tonight I bit the bullet and hauled myself to Roberta’s Advanced Ballet class. Those of you who have taken her class know my pain: Six months of no class, and here I am embarking on the toughest one. Yeah, I hurt. Sitting here in bed hurts. And I’ll certainly hurt tomorrow. I used muscles and stretched things I hadn’t focused on in months. But something was different tonight. Continue reading →

College has made me more impassioned, more idealistic and more cynical. Impossible, you say? Just wait.

After a lengthy discussion with my dad about today’s society and our inability to understand economics and politics, I am left with a disturbing amount of tenuous energy. So what do I do? In true journalistic fashion, I write about it. Continue reading →

Let’s be honest. In high school, we were all big fish in a little pond. After being in college for three (can it really be so few?) semesters, I would say everyone I know took a bit of a collective ass-kicking, literally or figuratively. Suddenly, you are not well-known by the student body. AP scores, and the hours you spent studying for the exams, mean little, if anything. You don’t have the faculty wrapped around your little finger. High school as a whole is out of sight, out of mind, and off the resumé. Mom and Dad are not present to fund you financially and emotionally. And you certainly don’t have the comfort of grade-school friends and your childhood bedroom. Continue reading →

I will officially turn 20 tomorrow at 2:38 p.m. central time. Ten years ago around this time…

It was 2000. The new millennium was still a novelty.

I was waiting to turn 10 and very excited for ‘double-digits.’

I would soon be having a birthday pool party at water works with blue jello made to look like the ocean.

I was in fourth grade.

My parents were still married.

The hardest thing I did in school was memorizing all fifty states and their capitals. Continue reading →