Time & Perspective Quote by Lusia Strus

There is a sly two-step in Strus's line: she gives you the postcard version of college first, then flips it into a résumé. "I partied there" signals disarming honesty, the kind that shuts down judgment by naming the stereotype before anyone else can. It’s also a wink at the audience’s favorite myth about actor training: that the real education happens after hours, when you’re trying on identities at full volume.

Then comes the pivot that makes the sentence work: "but I also learned how to act". The word "also" does the heavy lifting. It refuses the moral binary where partying cancels seriousness, or seriousness requires puritanism. Strus frames college as rehearsal space for adulthood, where social chaos and craft discipline aren’t competing narratives, they’re a single ecosystem. Acting, after all, is an art built on observation, impulse control, and tolerance for embarrassment - the same skills you sharpen in a dorm hallway at 2 a.m.

The subtext is a quiet defense of non-linear development, especially in a culture that treats creative careers like either destiny or fraud. By admitting the mess alongside the training, Strus protects the legitimacy of her work without pretending she was born fully formed. It’s a modern kind of credibility: not the myth of the tortured prodigy, but the relatable truth that you can waste time and still be becoming someone.