“I plan to just keep myself busy writing musicals,” he said. “That seems to be the thing that gets me through.”

Adam Gwon wrote a new musical called Scotland, PA and in this New York Times profile a few colleagues called him “the nicest man they’ve ever met” — and it’s true! I credit taking a lyric writing class at ESPA with Adam as the thing that tipped me into writing musicals in the first place. It also made me realize that enrolling in a structured class is sometimes the necessary thing to get you going on a project, or get started on something new and unfamiliar, or simply “get you through.” Maybe this is obvious, but once we’re out of school, perhaps it’s something we forget?