One of the exercises we have done in the first few weeks of my MFA at OSU is called “You’re awesome!” I think it’s a great way to open the space with positivity and help everyone feel, well, awesome actually. Norah said it came from a theater exercise.

 You stand in a circle and jump up and down and one at a time yell out 3 things you learned. It doesn’t have to be the most insightful thing. It could be that you saw plants in the space. You label each thing as 1-3 and everyone repeats the number back to you, loudly. Then you say your thing, like “Plants!” and everyone yells, “Your Awesome!”

It was awesome to take a minute to recognize everyone’s feelings of displacement of self in location, field, and humanness* and break the ice. The exercise made me feel grounded in a safe space for creating.

This would be great for any age group. We all could use a little more recognition that we are awesome. YOU’RE AWESOME!

*Grad Word