"Seize the Day" | Up with People Week 3

Title Reference: Seize the Day from Newsies

Week 3 is now COMPLETE! I’ve officially started losing track of what day it is, meaning I’m healthily in my happy place (rather than looking forward to Friday every week!). So much has happened since I last wrote! Read on to learn more about what we’ve done in staging, time I’ve spent with my host family, and other cast shenanigans I’ve gotten up to the past week.

Staging and Up with People Activities

This process has gone fully underway now. Some of the road staff (called Promotional Representatives) have already left the cast so that they can go and set up their cities before the cast arrives, and most of who is left with us now are the staff who are on the education team or those who are specifically going to be with us on the road the entire time. This week, we’ve done a TON of performing arts time, which mostly includes singing and dancing. We have about 4-5 hours of each day dedicated to learning songs and dances for the show, as well as working on separate parts like solo singing parts and featured dance parts. It’s been a really amazing experience and I feel even more now that I am breaking out of my shell in terms of my performance capability. It’s been amazing to realize that I’ve had this inside of me, but have never really tapped into it until now.

In addition to performing arts, we’ve also had a number of education workshops focusing on different things, like customizing our semester through internships and assistantships, setting SMART goals, the experiential learning cycle, and developing our leadership ability. This past Thursday, we had a leadership round table where 17 leaders from all different walks of life came in and talked to us about their leadership philosophies and career journeys. I’ve had a lot of experience with leadership development prior to Up with People due to different organizations and experiences I had in college, but I still walked away from the event with a whole new wealth of knowledge. In addition to listening to different leaders speak, I also had the opportunity to host one of our leaders, named Miguel. It was really cool getting to know him, especially considering he’s from Tucson, AZ (which is where my rival school is located). I learned a lot about his own experience in Up with People as well as the work he does now, which has a lot to do with empowering youth, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It was so awesome speaking a little more in depth with him because I found that his work aligns so closely with the line of work I want to get into. Overall, it was an amazing week!

Host Family and Cast Shenanigans

Last Sunday, I attended a cast Super Bowl party. I’m not a huge football fan but I had an amazing time getting to know some of my cast members better and also meeting some other host families. The halftime show has been a pretty controversial topic in the media, but we all loved it. I also did a mini photoshoot in the middle of the street, which was successful because I did not get run over by a car.

We had our first Up with People snow day this week. A lot of people were super excited, but being the lowkey workaholic that I am, I was a little upset. Quite a few people have been getting sick though, so it was nice to have the extra day off so everyone could get some much needed rest and relaxation. It turned out okay though! I got the chance to practice individually some of the songs and dances I’m working on for the show, watched Beyonce’s homecoming for probably the 147th time, and saw one of my favorite movies for the first time in a while. In the evening, I got together with some castmates at a bar/bowling alley/arcade just to hang out. It was such a fun time and it involved many crazy things like angry birds, stick people, someone falling off of a stage, and airborne contact lenses.

This weekend, my host mom drove me to downtown Denver which was really the first time I had seen the city! Not many people were out because it is freaking cold in Denver, but it was super cool to see all the different buildings, arenas, and stadiums down there. I definitely want to go back there to hang out some time before we leave here. My host mom also took me inside the oldest hotel in downtown Denver. I’m such a sucker for old architecture so I thought it was really cool to look around inside. It was such a packed week, but I had so many amazing experiences and I’m looking forward to next week!