My name is August Fountain, and I am from Rochester, NY. I have two siblings, an older sister, a younger brother, and a dog. I enjoy comic books, thrift shopping, and crystals. I’m currently a sophomore musical theatre major at SUNY Geneseo. I was in a choir for fifteen years, and I met my best friend there when I was three. My love for choir has inspired my future career. Before coming to Geneseo, I was in an entire career crisis, I wanted to do musical theatre, but I have this love for choir that will forever be my first home. Even now, I’m still deciding what I want to do with my future, but I am content with waiting it out and seeing what the future holds for me.
Although I am a sophomore, I remember my first semester very well. I was very nervous about coming to campus; I was worried about where my classes were and making friends. I am a very shy person, but I learned just to be an open and friendly person. Socializing can be so much fun if you look at it differently. I found people who made me comfortable enough to be social around and became friends with other musical theatre majors. They taught me always to work hard and to take care of myself. We always stick together no matter what and are always there for each other. After my freshman semester, those friends and I moved into a suite together. We all benefit each other in our own ways, and I’m glad we all met. College taught me to be myself. In my hometown, Being openly gay and transgender was not welcomed. However, in college, I got the chance to be respected and open with others and myself. It is truly a freeing experience to have others respect your identity. Everyone always told me college is where you truly find yourself, and that’s exactly what it did.
Throughout high school, I always struggled with General education courses. I was nervous about coming to Geneseo because I knew I was required to take those courses. In my first semester, I took an anthropology course that was challenging. I am not a strong writer and am not very good with words. It was complicated to keep up with my musical theatre training and this class. Don’t get me wrong, I found the course very interesting, but I lacked the motivation to dive deep into the study. This challenge made me realize that I need to take my time, notice details, and take my non-theatre classes more seriously. I put a lot on my plate this semester, but last semester taught me how to manage my time while still having fun.
In this class, I want to learn how to write. Growing up, my mother was an English teacher, so I honestly have no excuse as to why I still don’t know how to write an essay properly. In high school, each teacher had a different idea of what an essay should be. This system was never regulated, so I always wrote to please the teacher and learned a new writing tactic the following year. By the time I graduated, I had scattered ideas of how an essay should look. In the book They say, I say, they refer to writing style, how it comes across to the viewer, and how to bring up controversy smoothly. They also talk about how to respectfully disagree without discrediting. Formatting an essay is something with which I’ve always struggled. I want a format I can follow to write an essay I want, so I won’t have to take so long to write essays. One thing I would do differently (looking back on my first semester) is to take the writing seminar as soon as possible so that I wouldn’t have struggled so much in other writing classes.