152. Any Word From NYU?

"Sooooo...any word from NYU?"

I keep getting asked this question. And the answer has been "no" for quite some time...Much longer than I'm comfortable with.

And though "no news is good news" has been a comforting thought for me on these long winter nights...I finally lost my taste for patience and emailed Jonathon Ward, NYU Grad Acting Department Administrator. I sent him a short/sweet email simply inquiring about the status of my application.

I have friends that have received a "rejection" email already and another that has received a phone call inviting them to the final callback weekend.

Me? I've heard nothing...nada.

Don't mean to be pushy...but just wanted to make sure they didn't mis-type my email address into the system for that rejection email.

:-)

And Jonathan kindly replied back to inform me that I have not received an email or a phone call because I am in a pool of people that NYU will be contacting if they aren't able to assemble a class of 18 from the group of 50 actors they invited to the final callbacks...a.k.a. I am on the "wait list"...again...just like last year.

Good news: I have not been "cut." I am grateful to still be "in the running."

Bad news: I am essentially a "back-up" option. (Psychologically, this is not exactly a confidence-building way of viewing oneself.) Also, Jonathon didn't mention in his email how many people are in this wait-list "pool," but if it's anything like last year...there are probably about 250 of us wading around in it.

I mean...I'd LOVE to be NYU's FIRST choice, but if I make it in the end...I suppose it doesn't really matter if I was the "first choice" originally or not.

So we'll see how it goes... I'm not going to hold my breath though.

(Photo by L-Netz)

How's that for a sunshiny positive attitude? LOL!

I will probably hear back from NYU again the week following the callback weekend...so that's...I don't know...some time after March 20th probably.

Soooooo there will be mooooooore waiting in limbo.

Loves,
V

64. Don't Know Mind

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

The more I know, the more I know that I don't know.

And even things that I've learned before... I'm constantly re-learning over and over and over again.

I like to think of learning as an upward spiral rather than a straight line. Every time I learn a lesson and move up the spiral it still comes back around to the same questions, just at a slightly higher level.

Or sometimes not.

Re-learning things all the time can get frustrating, but I've begun to accept it as a part of my process and try not to beat myself up about it when I realize it's happened... again.

I like to try to cultivate something called "don't know mind," to take some of the pressure off of myself for not knowing things.

"A true "don't know mind" leaves a lot of room for your intentions to manifest in interesting and wonderful ways. When you commit to something 100%, without the need to know how you will get there, the universe will begin to weave it creatively into the physical world." - Lena Stevens, The Power Path

I find that when I release my attachment to knowing... that I am happier... I am more open. I learn faster and ultimately... questions are answered on their own time and in ways that I couldn't have foreseen anyway.

Some people use phrases like... "Let it go" or "It's all good" to help themselves release their attachments to things that they cannot control.

I like to say "Don't know."  ~ with a smile and a shrug~

And the more I practice not knowing... the easier it is for me not to know things. And HOPEFULLY, some day, I will get sooooo good at it that I won't know anything anymore.

That'd RULE!

I mean, who really KNOWS anything anyway? Ya know?

Life's gonna happen...whether I KNOW it or not,
Virginia

"The way of illumination seems dark,
going forward seems like retreat,
the easy way seems hard,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish."
- Lao Tsu, 41st Verse of the Tao Te Ching, Taken from Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer

37. Uncertainty

"Nothing great was ever created by waiting around for someone to tell you it's all going to be okay or for perfect information to drop from the sky. Doesn't happen that way. Great work requires you to act in the face of uncertainty, to live in the question long enough for your true potential to emerge. There is no alternative. When you find the strength to act in the face of uncertainty, you till the soil of genius." - Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear & Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance

Knowing things = so overrated... Moving forward anyway?... Priceless.

Chew on that with your Monday morning coffee.

Loves,
V

“To know that you do not know is the best.” -Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

24. Questions I Like to Ask Myself…

“A true “don’t know mind” leaves a lot of room for your intentions to manifest in interesting and wonderful ways. When you commit to something 100%, without the need to know how you will get there, the universe will begin to weave it creatively into the physical world.” – Lena Stevens, The Power Path

I’m a big believer in the power of asking good questions.  There is soooo much information to be gained in the asking of a really great question. Coming up with a good question can take courage, insight, awareness and sometimes research.

But the BEST questions are really the simplest ones… and, oftentimes, have the most complex answers… because they can lead to more beautiful, revealing, scary, awesome questions. These are the questions that really need to be asked.

When I ask myself a question, I try not to have an attachment to the answer. I like to leave it open for a while… To relish in the asking and let the universe do the talking. I let it simmer on the back-burner of my mind.

In other words, I won’t ACTIVELY be thinking about it, but just let the question sit in my subconscious for a while. I trust that if I don’t muscle or force it, if I just patiently allow it to come…something will eventually pop into my head as a result of my asking. And… inevitably something always does… and sometimes this something bears a strong resemblance to a… ~gasp~ … “answer.” Shocking!

Warning: Homework Assignment Below…

So here’s a question that I loooooove, it’s one that definitely influenced the creation of this blog and my decision to apply for schmancy drama schools like Juilliard, NYU and Yale.

Now… adjust your brain to simmer. And ask yourself…

Q: What would you do if nobody told you that you couldn’t (not even you)?

Don't think about it... seriously. Just simmer. Get back to me in a week. I’ll check-in with ya’ll about it next Sunday and we can share about what comes up.

Become your own dream come true.

Answers-schmancers,

Virginia

“Thoughts become things.” – Mike Dooley, Tut’s Universe