How honest can we really be?? Not very. I started this blog to honestly tell the story of my return to college. I quickly had to change its format because I had one person who had to comment on every post. Now don’t get me wrong- I LOVE comments. I check everyday to see if I have a new comment. And emails and facebook comments are also welcome. But this person told me how to solve my “problems” and the “problems” of any student I mentioned. Tell me what you think but really, some things are rhetorical!
Another phenomena is when I mention a story from school (and as always I never say names unless it is a glowing report or compliment.) Several times I have had several students come to me and ask if I was writing about them. They usually want to apologize. I never tell them yes, I always tell them if they see themselves in the story then they should think about that and learn from it, but I do NOT disclose anything. We can all learn and grow so just do that and move on.
Along the way I have thought about ending the blog. I don’t want to hurt anyone and I did not do this to “fix” anything. We are all creatures who make mistakes, say funny things, get on each others nerves and love each other anyway. I just wanted to report my experiences. Actually, I never thought anyone would read this blog, so I didn’t think it would matter. I thought later I might write a book but by then I would be gone from Montevallo and it wouldn’t matter. I never thought I would have hundreds of readers now, nor did I think I would actually make friends and truly love some of these people!
Now I am faced with a new challenge that I am so excited about, yet I see where real honesty (something we are asked for in acting over and over again) might not be the way to go. For my BFA project Stephonn and I are exploring our lives to write, produce, and “star” in a show. But my life is complicated and I am not sure how honest I can really be. Honesty is not always the best policy, so I have lots of thinking to do.
Raw honesty is of course the most interesting, and you’ve accomplished a lot of that in this blog! Honesty about other students and even your own parents. But you don’t want to hurt your loved ones, so I understand it’s a complicated decision how honest you should be in your project.