Hey. Here we are. It's December now. December means the holidays, spending time with family, filling the world with good tidings and great joy–or something–and it also means finals. And for an drama major, finals mean exams, yes...

as well as individual scene and monologue performances, design presentations, putting on scenes for directing class, memorizing an ungodly amount of lines, choreographing fights, finishing auditions and callbacks for the spring season, and/or being involved with a production of their own. Oh, and probably add in a stupidly hard dialect to present. Yep.

Of course, I'm not saying being an acting major is harder than most majors...wait. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Sorry.

We've all been there. We're all going through it with you. It'll be okay, sweet little buttercup. And if being called a sweet little buttercup still hasn't eased your literal and figurative pain, then let a fellow actor help you out. He's sweet, he's charming, and he's been in your position before. And like all of us trying to our best with each performance, he means well. And sometimes that's all you can shoot for.

So...

When your professors begin assigning final scenes:

Then they assign partners instead of letting you pick them:

And next they explain how important it is to be off-book ASAP but you just want to tell them that you have three other scenes you're being assigned to:

When you have your perfect scene but then realize you have to do the dialect that is your worst dialect and not even all the IPA in the world could make you be brilliant at this dialect:

And you finally get to that specific chunk of time in the week to memorize and it's the only time frame in which you can memorize but you end up just:

THEN you go over your planner and see you have a scene for directing class going up on the same day that you're in a scene and you also have callbacks and you have a rehearsal that night as well as a paper to write for that STUPID gen ed class everyone told you to take because it was "easy" and "the professor is like, super chill":

When you and your partner start blocking:

When your scene partner is already memorized way before you:

Or when it's the night before you perform and your scene partner still isn't off-book:

When you have to read five plays in one night because you've pushed reading plays at the bottom of your priorities every day for a month now:

And you're definitely regretting that directing scene (or two) that you agreed to do a few weeks before because you were just being nice and doing someone a favor:

And before you know it, it's the day of final showings, and no one is ready to go:

But then you actually feel ready but others keep jumping up before you:

When you're getting ready for the scene(s) and put on your makeup/costume for the first time:

When someone just finished performing and the professor is raving about it:

But then, like, you know they did a good job:

And you need to be paying attention to someone's scene for their/your professor's sake but you're really going over your lines in your head:

When there's more showings the next class but you're done so you really just have to be there:

And when you're finally, finally done with everything:

If Joey can do it, you can do it. Stay strong.