Halfway There!

Today marks officially the halfway point for our study abroad trip to Moscow. I can’t remember any other six weeks that have changed my life so profoundly, and for this I am extremely grateful. I can’t wait to see what happens with the next six weeks! This being said, here are the six most important lessons that I’ve learned in this first half of our trip:

1. Simplicity. Our professors, particularly our fencing teachers, are constantly reminding us that things are always a lot simpler than we make them. Why expend the energy to take three backs back and wave your fencing sword around to block your opponent when you could take one step back and push their sword to the right? Or if your partner isn’t close enough to hit you, why move back at all? We were all super intimidated why the idea of fencing at the beginning, but we are learning it is much simpler to wield a weapon than we thought. Luckily, on stage we will always be working with fencing partners, not enemies. Simple. Release muscles. Listen to your partner. Find the easiest way.

2. Joy. Our movement professor, Vlad, knows about two phrases in English. As we are running around the room at top speed or jumping as high as we possibly can for as long as we possibly can, he is constantly screaming his favorite English word—SMILE. Movement could be a very difficult course for us. We are learning how to stand on our shoulders and balance each other in the air. It takes trusting your own body and your partners constantly. A lot of the positions we were asked to do at the beginning felt impossible, but we are beginning to understand our bodies and fitness in a whole new light. It’s all about finding the joy in the process, not the frustration in not having the product. If you can’t do it, smile. You can do so much more when you are joyful in learning the process.

3. There is not always a correct answer. In our acting classes, we have to present a new etude at the beginning of every class. Every day, we create a story with an event that changes everyone, has high stakes, and can be told more through our bodies than through our words. Then the next day we tell a new story. We never get it quite right, there is always something that could have been more important, something that could have been lessened, etc. But every day we find a new story to tell, and we slowly improve how we tell our stories. We were told a few weeks in that it’s virtually impossible to have a perfect etude—there is always something off, sometimes without a better solution possible. It’s all about the chemistry of the story with the actors and the actor’s chemistry with each other. It will not be right. However, there is always something to learn. We are students. It’s about the process, not the product.

4. Flexibility. Yes, we are learning flexibility in Vlad’s movement class—half of us are now able to get our feet behind our heads! But this isn’t the kind of flexibility I’m talking about. I think a lot of us came on this trip with certain expectations in mind for what we would like and what would be difficult. The people with the most preconceived notions ended up frustrated about how the experience was different than we expected. But no matter how much we talked to classes above us—each group that goes has a very different experience, and we can only tune in to our own experiences. We have to be flexible to what is, as opposed to what we thought it would be. Once we let go of that and began to go with the flow of a very different culture than our own, we began to have a much more positive experience as a collective.

5. It is fun to fail! Russian teachers are very different than American teachers. We are constantly told everything that we need to improve, and then some things we are doing alright as well. But we will very rarely be told there isn’t something to improve. If we do an exercise properly, they add a new element to it to make it more challenging. There hasn’t been a single day here where I haven’t failed miserably at something—and I’ve never improved so much in my life.

6. Conflict is one of the most important factors of life. It is very difficult to live in a place where things are done very differently than we are used to. We are constantly around people used to a very different culture than our own and learning how to adapt to that. We are also all very different from each other. Some of us are constantly wanting to work ourselves silly, and others want to explore more and put less emphasis on the work for classes. We have night owls and early risers and constant noise. We have extroverts that constantly want to hang out, and others that need lots of alone time. Differences make it difficult to coexist. However, without people that operate differently than us, there is less room to grow. I have learned to let go of some of my Type A work habits in a way that has improved my classwork by getting me out of my head, and others have been challenged to put in a little more work. We need to learn these things from each other to grow more. In conflict, there is growth and comprise and harmony. Conflict can be good.