Improv(e)

Bad at Saying No

A moody Nyx pic for a (good) moody week. 💙

I have a habit of saying yes to too many side projects.

A habit of going too hard at things.

A habit of volunteering to coach an improv troupe for a session here and there, from time to time, only to talk with the artistic director and accidentally point out and pitch a job as Lead Coach / coordinator, then foolishly offering to do said job, then spend far too many hours creating a Slack workspace and setting up coaching schedules and building an hours tracker and writing up a cast code of conduct and crafting a mission statement all in prep for the first rehearsal tonight and that will be ongoing every other Tuesday for the next year.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m stoked to coach and run a troupe. But also. I am already a little tired just thinking about it.

But the reason I say yes to all these projects is because I know for all the energy expenditure, the energizing nature of the work, of seeing folks learn and grow and building something from nothing and improving my own skills along the way, is a high that beats a hundred cups of coffee, that keeps me going far longer than 5 hour energy drinks. It’s the kind of mix of administrative and leadership and creative work that has me firing on all cylinders, that sparks joy, that triggers all the good brain chemicals, that has me rambling in run on comma spliced sentences at 2:48am instead of sleeping in prep for a long day.

All of this is to say: I’m excited to dip my toes back into improv. 💙