I'm feeling slumpy.

Back in the day (two semesters ago), I slumped in the middle of working on Three Sisters, shirking my responsibilities and unfairly burdening my co-Master Props with extra work. I came back strong in my work on The Crucible, showing that I was willing to grow and learn. Killer Joe came, however, and dashed those hopes upon the rocks of the same mysterious apathy that had struck me down semesters before. I relied heavily upon the skill of those around me, and it was thanks largely to them that the set looks as good as it does. I'm feeling that vague, hazy laziness returning, and I find myself unmotivated and all-too capable and willing of blaming it on recent sad events.

But, this time, I refuse to capitulate.

It is time for me to take stock of that which I have to be grateful for, to find what can continue to motivate me. My first course of action in times like these, as I have told some of you recently, is to read the Wikipedia article about Theodore Roosevelt:

"While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot him, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after penetrating both his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he wasn't coughing blood, the bullet had not completely penetrated the chest wall to his lung, and so declined suggestions he go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for ninety minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Really? What do I have to complain about? I pulled all-nighters last semester and fancied myself a martyr for having 'gone through' them, but at least I didn't have a bullet in me. I've cleaned my room, and will start laundry after class, along with a dose of reading for my theatre history class.

I've tried being awful at school for years now. I think I'll try to kick some ass.

Homework? Why, it takes more than that to demotivate a Bull Moose.