Endings and beginnings

Hello, Internet, it’s Friday, and I don’t really know what to feel right now.

Ok, first, read this public service announcement. Then come back and the stuff I’m saying will make sense.

So, let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time (Mother’s Day weekend, 2007), I graduated from university. And the head of the Faculty of Fine Arts came up to me – and my parents – and asked if I was planning on moving back to Ontario. I said something along the lines of “well, yeah… but who knows?” and then he said something extremely cryptic about it maybe being a good idea to stick around the province for a little while.

Two weeks later, the department secretary called and gave me the name and phone number of Zita Cobb, about whom I knew nothing except that I was to call her RIGHT AWAY. So I did. It was a strange conversation. Or, I thought it was, until I realized that Zita has conversations like this all the time. It went like this:

Z (answering phone): Hello?

S: Um, hi, my name’s Sharon King-Campbell… and (department head) told me I should call you…

Z: Oh, good. Let’s have lunch. Are you free the day after tomorrow?

S: …yes?

Z: Good. Do you like The Sprout?

S: Yes.

Z: Excellent. I’ll meet you there at 1.

S: Ok.

Z: See you then. Bye.

(click)

So, we met at The Sprout and ate pad thai and she told me about Fogo Island (which I had only heard about I’se The B’y form), and this big church that seats 1000 and would I maybe want to come see the island and while we’re at it did I want to come to England with her to hang out with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Arts Centre English Theatre?

I felt like the moon had just landed in my lap.

And then I was brought on the longest, most amazing job interview of all-time, involving a trans-Atlantic flight, some of the best theatre I’ve ever seen, a walk up St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then a trip to Fogo Island, where I met Tony Cobb, Pete & Margaret Decker, and several other incredible people to whom I said goodbye today.

I was 22. I was, as Pete said yesterday, “a little girl.”

Today was my last day of the job that resulted from that meeting and that hilarious job interview/trip. The theatre company that resulted from it has allowed me to work with some of the most incredible people in this province.

I am grateful, on the verge of tears, and unbelievably excited all at once. I don’t really know what’s coming next, but I’m looking forward to finding out.