Mirror Mirror

In my workshopping piece, I had a bit of a freakout that my essay was becoming too similar to essays I've written previously. But the class was so reassuring (all these are paraphrased) Darlene: "You shouldn't run away from what interests you and what you're passionate about." Izzi: "I haven't read much of your writing before so as someone who's reading it for the first time, I think it's great." Mishka: "We've been in a lot of classes together but I don't think it feels stale." Carly: "The only thing I noticed that was similar was the mention of another Barbie movie." Callie: "Amanda, I've really missed reading your writing." I love this course. I'll be sad to leave it at the end of semester. * On another note, my best friend and I started playing Minecraft on Saturday and I love it. Can't believe it took me so long to get onto it. I'm a complete noob but it's really nic

My best friend slept over on the weekend and we watched The Prestige.  I ended up crying at the end because of the dark and scary bits. My best friend had to hold me and hug me. After he fell asleep, I was too scared to fall asleep. I had to distract myself with Reddit and Instagram until I started thinking about other things and not people getting their fingers chopped up and drowning. We tried to watch Whiplash together a few months ago. I couldn't get through the first half an hour because it was too intense. The next morning, I realised I do like The Prestige. I liked talking about it, discussing what happened, how messed up the characters were. * Alex posted on Facebook that he had been published in RMIT's Catalyst magazine. I saw it and thought: hey, why don't I do that? I pitched a piece I wrote for Theories last sem which was my mistake. Somewhere in the background conversations of this degree I have heard that it is not a good idea to pitch something

Being a ballet teacher in the months of June and July means exams. My students needed to be ready. I needed to be ready. The principal of my dance school, my boss, was the examiner for my Level 2 ballet exams. In my three years of teaching ballet, the Level 2 ballet exams have been my boss's opportunity for criticism. 'Loren's kids had much better posture than yours.' 'You really need to work on their stretched feet.' 'Your improvisation music was too complex!' This year, she pulled me over at the end of the exams. I braced myself. 'Thank you for working on those Level 2s arms!' Sometimes it's the bad stuff that sticks with me--a splinter in my mind (as coined by my best friend). This time, it was a good splinter. A colourful sprinkle. * When demands and expectations of me are high, the high school Dux inside me shrieks...quietly. She gets quieter every year. After I got a Credit for my excerpt of Mutable Air, Cardinal