Life seems to be always moving at a rapid pace. Sometimes, I wish life would slow down for a moment. However, as a student that is not the case. I am always going and doing something, such as, homework, work, theater productions, going to classes, makeup projects, and film projects. All these items keep me super busy and exhausted.

Some people have asked me, "How do you balance everything? How do you keep doing everything?" The honest truth is there are times where I cannot balance everything and feel overwhelmed. At times like these I have to remind myself that I cannot do everything all at once. I have to slow down and take one step at a time.

Most importantly, with each step I take, I create a moment of balance. Each moment takes some sort of connection with the world around me. That connection may be through body language, silence, talking, seeing, or even feeling. Most of the connections I make incorporate some form of communication. Over the past week, I have learned that communication is necessary in all things from doing homework to working on a production. For instance, my job took a turn from running smoothly like a well oiled machine to having a huge knot. There was a point where I felt I would never be able to get the knot out. Well I discovered the knot was created from  not being able to communicate clearly.

I am the Head Hair and Makeup Supervisor in the Costume Shop on campus. I have a lot of responsibilities with this job.The biggest responsibility I have is to train the actors on proper makeup application techniques, how to style their hair and how to follow the makeup design from the designer on the specific show they are performing in. In order to fulfill this responsibility well, I have to organize makeup students to help oversee the actors and make sure they are applying the makeup correctly according to the design of the show.

The show that Brigham Young University is currently working on is The Count of Monte Cristo. This show is an American Premiere show. This show has never been done in the United States before. This show is very big and intense. Since this is the premiere BYU is trying to get everything to work right and look good. My job is to make sure the hair and makeup look good on stage. I do this by communicating to my crew what needs to be done.

The show has not gone up yet, but we are two weeks from the first performance. The weeks before performances I get a crew together and train them on what needs to be done. I have been emailing my crew and informing them when when we have training, what we will be doing, and what is expected of them. I failed to include the designer on the emailing list. No one was communicating with her. Since she was not receiving any of my emails she went into panic mode. She started emailing everyone and told them when she wanted to do training. She was going to train them. My crew received half a dozen emails telling them conflicting things. They did not know who to follow. They were confused. Luckily, I was able to clear up the communication error, by learning that I had not included her in the emails I sent.

I cleared up the communication error. Today, I gave a nice training, while at the same time, everything went smoothly and the designer was pleased.

-The life of a makeup student