Student Perks Spotlight: TUSC
One of the best parts of being a college student is all the perks that you can get, from discounted tickets, to free giveaways, to celebrity talks right…
I grew up a Theatre Person, and subsequently not a Sports Person. My sister, however, played several different sports over the years, joining several different teams. While theatre introduced me to a new group of people, the sense of community I felt was very different than that of my sister. I would join a cast, and after that show ended the small team we had built would disintegrate. It wasn’t that we never saw each other again; we did, and we were still friends. But I wasn’t part of a team like my sister was. And I never saw how much I was missing until I had one.
Tufts theatre is a very, very big scene. Student-run theatre alone offers several dozen opportunities to get involved throughout the year. Subsequently, it’s both very easy to find theatrically-inclined friends, and to find yourself lost at sea. Umbrella groups offer a way to narrow that pool, and I finally found my teammates in Hype! Mimez.
Upon making it through the audition process into America’s only undergraduate mime troupe last spring I knew I was a part of something special. I had wanted to be in Hype since entering Tufts, but intimidation kept me from auditioning until my sophomore spring. This long wait made me appropriately excited to join the group, but the full impact of having a team like this didn’t hit me until a full semester later.
Maybe it was the fact that when we came back from the summer it felt like nothing changed. Maybe I just got to know everyone a little bit more. Maybe it’s because we actually call ourselves a “troupe.” But I think it’s something else.
It’s the way I was able to instantly bond with a member I hadn’t known because he was abroad.
It’s going to the birthday party of a mime older than me who already has his own group of friends, and still feeling both welcome and comfortable at his party.
It’s indulging myself in being silly during rehearsals, and the way this group doesn’t even notice it, let alone care.
It’s having a group of theatre people get excited about Tufts football and go with you to a game when your other artistically-inclined friends (understandably) won’t.
It’s seeing the bond upperclassmen still have with graduated mimes, and knowing that while we’re not each other’s primary group of friends at Tufts, our bond goes deeper than that with some of our classmates.
It’s allowing each other to try and fail. To experiment creatively, to admit our fears and desires.
Perhaps, it’s not even any of these things. It’s just a feeling. A comfort that feels familial. It’s the feeling of finally being part of a team.
One of the best parts of being a college student is all the perks that you can get, from discounted tickets, to free giveaways, to celebrity talks right…
I’ve often heard the transition from high school into college summed by this metaphor: You get thrown into an ocean, and you’ve got to learn how to…
In college, you will have a lot more time on your hands, and most of it is yours to allocate. How do you make the right decisions about it?