Building stuff is really hard.

Well, no. It's intimidating when you've never done it before. There are so many factors to consider, so many details that are hard to plan for until you're standing there surrounded by drywall that, apparently, needs to be taped and you realize you don't have tape. Or mud. Or one of those taping knife things. Or ...

I have spent more time going to Home Depot than I have actually building my booth. It's a vocal booth, and I was inspired by another voiceover artist who said building your own Whisper Room is so much more affordable, and you convert a garden shed into one. Easy!

So I started looking into how one builds such a thing. That led me to soundproofyourstudio.com and a whole lot of information on how to soundproof a studio. (Really, overkill for what I'm doing, but it is thorough!) I took my time researching, then drew out plans, decided on materials, and came up with a final design for a soundproof studio. 

And then discovered Whisper Rooms aren't soundproof. 

Okay, well, I do aim to do things to a higher degree than average, so I'm keeping my design, and I'm going for overkill.

I though, in my innocent days of not knowing anything about construction, that I would have this puppy up and running within three days. This is not going to happen. It took me four just to get the floor done.

What I've learned so far is this:

1. Construction takes longer than you guess

2. You can't know what you don't know and you kind of have to be prepared to jump in and stop in your tracks, run to the store, and redirect, because ... you didn't know something

3. Nothing's perfect -- even when you measure multiple times and cut carefully and line up with blindingly slow, patient diligence. You can get things to be good. Really good. But don't demand perfection.

That last one is something I've also been learning about life.

This last weekend, I had an audition that I was very excited about. And very intimidated by. The role required American Sign Language experience, so I mentioned in my submission that I'd taken ASL in college. I chose those words carefully. "Experienced in ASL" was easily misconstrued and I didn't want to oversell. So left it at that. 

Lo and behold, they sent me the sides and deadline. Woo-hoo! Three days to work on it. And one of the scenes involved signing while speaking the lines. 

Taking ASL in college does not, necessarily, make you fluent. But it does provide a very important foundation. 

For instance, when I was searching out the vocabulary in the scene I didn't know, I came across a website that demonstrated words in ASL. Only it wasn't ASL. It was signed exact English. Those two are very much not the same thing. Thank God I could tell! 

ASL works in its own way, just like any other language, and my college prof had taught me well. 

It was an incredibly challenging audition, but I did it, and I loved it. I won't be surprised if they find an actual interpreter for the role, and that's fine. I didn't back down from an intimidating project that require hard, hard work.

A foundation is a very valuable tool. You can build on it, and things won't fall down if you don't build perfectly.