We're Moving to Scotland!!!

So, a little over a year ago I posted a blog about Steven's upcoming Grad School Auditions. Obviously since I didn't post anything after, they were not extremely successful. He had one school that said they liked him, but they still had a lot of auditions to go and they eventually found someone they liked a little more. Lets just say, it was a slightly dark time at the Grawrock house. Things did cheer us up though when we heard that a lot of people need to audition for Grad schools several times before getting in. That was the light at the end of the tunnel!

After much prayer and talking, Steven and I decided that we were going to give Grad School auditions one more shot before throwing in the towel. But, this time we were going to limit our options a little more and not apply to quite so many schools. He did, however, apply through URTAS which is a program that lets you apply to about 40 different schools at one time. Not too shabby. Steven's dream school (The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama or RSAMD) were the ones that told him they liked him, so that was the one school he specifically wanted to audition for again. Having the wonderful parents that he does, they decided they wanted to fly him to Scotland so he could actually audition in person this time. I'm not sure if it actually helped his chances or not, but I know that it gave him a little more confidence. So, in early February Steven auditioned for URTAS and The University of Birmingham School for Acting because they were having open auditions in San Francisco and he figured, WHY not? Well, we found out on Feb. 21 that Steven was accepted into the only URTA school there from England. East 15 in Essex, England. As you can imagine, we were THRILLED. He not only got into Grad School, but Steven had always wanted to study abroad. Steven then flew to Scotland for his Audition knowing that he had already been accepted into Grad School, which I think relieved some of the pressure. He had a WONDERFUL audition in Scotland. One of the best he's ever had and he felt really good about it. When he came home he had an e-mail from them telling him that they were putting him on the list of people they were considering, but that they wouldn't know for sure until they finished all their auditions. This alone was exciting. But while we were trying to decide if we should accept East 15's offer while we waited to hear from Scotland we got word that Steven was accepted into the Birmingham School for Acting that he had randomly auditioned for. So, Grad school number 2 accepted him. YAY!

At this point we were just trying to decide between East 15 and Birmingham since we hadn't found out about Scotland yet. We both felt strongly that Birmingham was the better choice, even though we hadn't heard of either school before. So, we turned down East 15 and asked Birmingham for an extension while we waited. They were so nice and went ahead and told us they would wait.

We ended up waiting 2 months, but we FINALLY heard from Scotland and he Got in!! We can't believe it. Steven has wanted to go there for 4 years now and we're still in shock that he got in. The Alumni list is amazing and since we've accepted we found out that its ranked number 4 in the world for Theatre Schools. Steven laughs at me, but I like to brag that we also found out that Birmingham is rated number 8 in the world, so he was accepted into 2 of the top 10. That's just incredible to me and I am SO proud of him. Now we're just trying to get things ready to move at the end of August. (Aug. 30 to be exact, since we now have the plane tickets) I'm excited to keep this blog up and to keep everyone informed on the progress of this move. Its an extremely exciting and nerve racking time. So, keep tuned for more updates on the Grawrock Family adventure!