Being Great

Hello all:

I finished my week in Newburyport, MA and now I'm in Hamilton, MA. Our cast manager left for week, and just before he left, he enlightened us with some wisdom. "It is easy to be great when we have what we need. The real challenge is being great when we don't have what we need. Cast B 2012 has been great, whether we have what we need or not." I applied this to our tour around the world, and there have been and will be times when we don't/won't have what we think we need. It takes courage, teamwork, strength and open-mindedness to be great when we don't have everything. We are here to be great wherever and with whatever we have. 

This week, we were working in classrooms in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The coolest part? We were in 83 classrooms, and reached over 2000 students. We did activities such as creating a personal flag with the elementary students, a values auction with the high schoolers, and a cultural trivia game with the middle schoolers. We talked about what values meant to different people, and why we value different things. At first, the high schoolers were reluctant to get into the workshop, but after we did a few rounds of bidding on things like "a long happy life" or "to find the cure for a disease", there were discussions floating around the room that surprised me. These students were talking about the importance of having a long healthy life, and if you have that, everything else can fall into place because being happy rubs off on everyone else, and happiness can spark people to do great things. Some of these kids were only freshmen! It was a great way to start our classroom work. 


We have two shows this week, and it's estimated that 1200 people are going to show up at both shows. Incredible, isn't it? And I can't believe it's already September. I'm starting my third month! and in three months, I'll be home for Christmas! Man, time flies! 

I will see you all soon, and until then, hasta luego! 


Bonnie