houston real estate

The tech theatre students here have started up a chapter of the national tech theatre student organization. They're trying to get together enough money to go to the design expo that the organization holds every year (this summer it's in Houston).

It's hard organizing things like this for the first time trailblazing. I imagine the student leaders of our chapter brainstorming ways to make enough money to go (the Christmas show fundraiser almost did it, but not quite). I imagine them trying to figure out a place to stay when they go to the expo. "There's approximately three hotel rooms left in Houston," one of them said. I imagine them doing internet searches, clicking past pages for Houston realtors and Houston homes for rent, looking for maybe a youth hostel that still has rooms open, rolling their eyes when they stumble across a Houston, Texas real estate website by mistake. (Why do they keep finding Houston real estate while looking for Houston hotels? My imagination isn't really sure. Maybe it's a sign: they ought to look for funding from Houston Heights Real Estate or something.)

It's hard work, setting something up and doing it for the first time and I know from experience. But there's a secret: when you pull it off, there's no thrill better. When they get to the expo this summer, and they will, they'll understand. They'll drive into Houston past signs for Central Houston Real Estate, past cartoonish Houston ten-gallon hats and Houston condos and whatever else one would encounter in Houston. They'll set up their table at the expo, complete with set models, costume renderings, light plots, and plastic banners from their funders exclaiming "Houston Memorial Real Estate is Proud to Support Tech Theatre Students!" or simply stating "Houston Medical Center Real Estate." They'll look around at the other students from across the nation who have their own stations and their own design renderings, students from universities with more prestigious theatre departments, some of them, and I guarantee you, the swelling sense of accomplishment they'll feel will be one of the sweetest they've experienced to date.

I envy them. I've been through it, but watching them do it, I can't help remembering that first thrill. I hope someday I get to experience it again. I think I will. It's my kind of schtick, what I best like to do: start things from scratch.