June Update

Well, it's so far been about a month since the last shows of ProTrack and I currently find myself safe at home in Chappaqua, NY.

The week after the last of the shows, I stayed in Brattleboro for an extra week to continue training (hey, my rent and Members Only was already paid for! :P).  I also had a private lesson with Serenity that I rescheduled because my sinuses started to act up between the two weekends of shows.  She helped to lead me in the direction how to further modify my trapeze act for the future.

The week after, I came back to Chappaqua and first and foremost spent some time with many of my friends who I, for the most part, haven't seen since the holiday break I had in December.  I trained at World Cup a few of those days as well.  It's been particularly nice to have some training time where I'm not concentrating on my single point trapeze major or floor acrobatics minor to get some long-needed time with aerial fabric.

I've also been able to manage an agreement with World Cup Gymnastics so that I can teach private lessons there during the one hour timeslot that I've otherwise been able to use to train.  So far, this has been slow, as the hardest thing at this point is getting the word out that I am teaching lessons.  However, once I get a solid clientele, I am sure that this will become something worth it in the end.  You can find out more information about the private and semiprivate lessons I teach at http:///www.trevorkafka.com/instructor.html.

For the two weeks after, I went on vacation in Grand Cayman with my parents, which was exceedingly nice.  There was a lot of SCUBA diving, snorkeling, ocean fun, and island exploring.  Not much occurred during this time that was circus related, so not much elaboration will go on with respect to this subject (except for the fact that I kept having cravings to want to do aerials over the ocean, which I'm sure will one day become a reality -- it just seems like just a wonderful thing to do as well as behold).

This past week I had two students sign up for a semiprivate lesson, but shortly thereafter had cancelled.  They were both students I had not known prior, so I was eager to hope to spread the word to others, but that's just life I guess.  Regardless, we keep on trucking.

My plans for the fall and spring collectively couldn't be much more of a cause for anxiety.  As some of you reading this already know, I was accepted to Brandies University last year as a midyear student, meaning that I will officially matriculate January 2012 (they supposedly do this so they can enroll more students each year). This was not a choice by me, and sticks with you even when you take a year off (like I did for ProTrack at NECCA).  Unfortunately, for someone like me who is planning on majoring in Physics, minoring in Mathematics, and possibly minoring in Secondary Teacher Education, the fall-spring course distribution works terribly against my favor for many first and second year courses which are frequently prerequisites for higher-level courses.  The whole process of course selection via Brandeis' horridly disorganized website and process of seeking resolutions via internet communication with authoritative personnel has so far taken a god-awful amount of time and effort on my part, so for the sake of myself mentally, I wish not to elaborate much further.  The nitty gritty truth of the matter is that I'll probably have to end up self-studying three semesters worth of fall courses independently and not for credit before I get to Brandeis so that I am not left behind.  I have been persistently expressing my disappointment in the midyear program, and am unfortunately not seeing the message come across strongly.  At this point, I ultimately feel unfairly disadvantaged, insufficiently regarded by staff members, very lucky that I took the initiative early enough to actually sift through all of the course information to actually find the problem, and otherwise unnecessarily burdened.

Among this has resulted in me not exactly knowing where I am going to be and to what extent I will be doing what this fall.  In a normal midyear admit situation, I was hoping to be able to simply devote this time in my life to teach and perform in the circus world in Boston, however if I very luckily end up being able to sit-in on the actual classes at Brandeis this fall as a non-matriculated student (a plan which I have posed but have not yet received a response on), these plans will be rather hindered.  Of course, not to the extent that it would be in real college, but not as an every-day thing, and most certainly not in a financially sustainable extent.

Enough of that, seriously.  I just hope for peace and reasonibility in the future.

That is my life ramble for today.  I thank you for reading.
Trevor Kafka