Another year, another musical.

This year was different…and tiring for one big reason.

I’ve had all to do the backdrops and graphical sequences solo, from scratch. This time around, no more sourcing from the Internet – I’ve gotten tired of that and the stakes were higher this year.

I certainly didn’t want the musical to have problems, so I decided to do it the hard way.

That was ______________ hard.

At some points, I just closed my laptop and looked at the ceiling of the faculty room. I am reminded myself of the reality why animation, graphics design and their allied fields are really grindy and tiring.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Time was running, I needed to juggle my Master’s Degree classes with other responsibilities and I needed to finish them pronto, without glitches, without excuses.

Finally, I got the job done. Copies were stored, backups made, assignments given, scripts arranged.

It all came down to that final hour. Lots of grinding, of negotiating, of talking and of walking – this was what this musical was all about this year. But then, seeing a good performance was worth it.

At the end of it all, I can’t say that what I did was perfect and spectacular. I knew that I could have done better.

But I knew that the bottom line was more important this year. And surely enough, we raised the bottom line pretty well – good enough for our distinguished visitors on that night.

Oh, by the way, I get to finally watch the musical as a member of the audience – with students who do not need too much supervision.

This is the best part of the musical for me, just chilling around with my students while I eat Pringles and drink ice tea with them.

There was a fight scene in one of the scenes from the high school’s portion of the musical. I said, “More, more, more!”

The students who heard it reacted as follows:

“Teacher, no!”

“Fighting is bad, teacher, tsk tsk tsk.”

“Teacher Earl, why do you say more fighting?”

Hmmmm.

Maybe it’s because I actually want to see more action and twists and stunts!

On the other hand, good thing that the students noticed it.

It just shows that they’ve learned a lot from Values Education. Hehehe.

I want a full-fledged musical next school year.

Well, that’s a wish, but let’s see if the management genies actually grant that wish!

Let’s see what the next year brings. For now, time to look forward to the holiday season! Oops, I mean – ending season…