Post Uni Life

Recently I have been back in the area where I grew up, having found myself a little stuck as I recover from a chaotic summer and attempt to find my feet in the adult world. After years of never being in this corner of the world for more than a fortnight at a time, I have been struggling to explain to people why this place doesn’t feel like home any longer. For those of you unfamiliar with the life I led between Oxford terms, I’d typically find myself travelling with my archaeologist mother, spending more and more time in Scotland in recent years. Over the last year or so I’ve found that I can count on one hand the amount of days I’ve spent in the valley…until recently. Having crash landed in a small Shropshire town, I am struggling to find a new normal that both helps me move on and doesn’t waste the time I have here. I am surrounded by my father’s family, and streets I could navigate blindfolded, but none of my friends or the vivacity of life I am used to. By 6pm here the streets are dead and you feel like it must be far later. Night life consists of a few pubs, spilling drunken local men onto the streets. It couldn’t be more different from Oxford, where there’s always a hundred things going on and you could find yourself hopping from one event to the next into the wee hours every single night.

In attempt to not just sit in my room applying from jobs and scrolling depressed through my socials to see all of the things that I’m missing, I have in some ways tried to recreate my reality here. There may not be Blackwell’s, Society or Crosstown, but there is a bookshop with a coffeeshop in it. I’ve been a regular since it opened and most of the staff have therefore known me since I was about nine. It’s familiar, there’s fun Christmas coffees, plenty of books to browse and they do great events. Unfortunately there’s no wifi and very few people working in there, so me with my laptop in the corner is quite the conspicuous sight.

The lifesaver has been theatre… surprise surprise. It’s obviously not of the scale I am used to, but there is definitely a theatre scene in this small border town. Having done theatre for a long time, I knew exactly who to ask to find my way into this community after three years away. Once upon time, a long, long, (long) time ago I was a very quiet and shy little girl who was sent to Stage Coach to gain some confidence. Fast forward to over ten years later and I was a sixteen year old completing my Gold LAMDA Acting Solo. From there I went on to give up acting and theatre for a few years, only to end up neck deep in it by the time I left Oxford. Through all of my time at Stage Coach I was under the same principle and LAMDA coach, a woman who saw every challenge I had to overcome as I grew up and went out of her way to look after me… while also being one of the most terrifying people I had ever encountered. She’s still the strictest director I’ve ever met and definitely not someone you answer back. With all this in mind, I emailed her to let her know I was back in town and she enthusiastically invited me to the rehearsal that evening. Fast forward two weeks and I very much have pirates on the brain, the three Treasure Island rehearsals a week being my only form of socialising. As I sit writing this, I have just been for drinks with the adults in the cast and crew, my formidable drama teacher having bought me a glass of wine. I’ve never felt more like an adult! I’m now on the other side, chatting as we discuss the youth group, their different personalities and who will go far. This may be amateur theatre, I may only be prompting, but this small lifeline has made the periods between city existence feel so much more manageable.

So I suppose that is my update. I am living a peaceful existence in a snow covered rural town that currently feels remarkably like one of those Christmas movies where the city slicker comes home and falls back in love with the small town existence. Will I be staying here long term? Absolutely not! But it’s not wholly unpleasant and I’m enjoying the community feel and watching the teens find their feet in theatre just as I was at that age.