So What Are You Doing Now?

A couple of friends and I went to Cedar Point ( an amusement park) and in an effort to cool off; ducked into one of the air conditioned theatres for a show.  Long story short I saw that one of the peformers went to Ball State University where I studied, (well drank a lot) during my Freshman year of college.  Cedar Point is a pretty legit summer job for a college kids studying Musical Theatre.  I spent a summer singing and dancing in one of their shows making $500/wk and thinking I was totally loaded.  Which is totally loaded for a 19 year old without any living expenses.  Heck, I think I actually make less than that now.  After we had named all the teachers we both had, she looked at me with her wide naive eyes and in the sincerest voice asked, "So what are you doing now?"  She begged the question with the most hopeful, unjaded, and optimistic outlook of a kid still in college.  Obviously a girl who's never gotten up at 4:30am, to take a subway 140 blocks to scribble her name on the 'unofficial non-union sign up sheet' (at three different audition venues) hoping she'll get to sing her best sixteen bars for a casting director before her restaurant shift at one.
I didn't have the heart or humility to tell her the truth.  I gave her some vague bullshit answer that didn't include getting cast in a Broadway show after my first couple auditions.  I wanted to tell her the truth that it's hard and that post grad life as a musical theatre major looks something like this...I'm working a souless job in marketing which I really have no experience in, but my dad knows the boss so he got me in; and it sure beats waitressing!  But I haven't totally abandoned musical theatre, I'm currently in a community theatre production of 'Chicago'.  No it's not a regional theatre or even summer stock.  Just an unpaid gig in a small barn in the middle of Ohio.  Kind of a shame about the unpaid part cause I'm drowning in student loans but I'm hoping to start paying them back now that I moved back in with my parents.  The local paper just dogged the show in their review, but on the up side we've pre-sold a lot of tickets.  And I did get the lead, so it looks like my 120 thousand dollar education in the performing arts is finally starting to pay off.  So I understand you're going into your senior year... seriously if it's not too late you should really change your major.