Don’t Stop Believin’

Why do people give up on their dreams? Why do so many people get complacent in where they are, the job they are in and hold back on what they are really passionate about? Is it fear? Too much hard work? Low self-esteem? This may not resonate with college age people as much as it does older people, because hopefully we are pursuing our dreams in college. Hopefully, I say, because there are those who aren’t. Like me.

In high school, theatre was my life. I loved performing. It made me happier than doing anything else. I wanted to get on stage, live a life different than my own and make the audience feel what that character was feeling. I wanted to make them cry, laugh, connect to these characters that are only a two-hour part of their life.

But I decided not to pursue it in college, despite people telling me I was very talented. Why? Because I didn’t want to live the life of an actor. (Assuming I made it to the big time) I didn’t want to live under the constant scrutiny of the paparazzi. How ridiculous that reasoning sounds to me now. I LOVE acting, and if that’s what I want to do the most, that’s what I should do. I don’t want to look back and wonder what if. I don’t want to think I didn’t try because I was afraid of what would happen if I did make it big or what would happen if I didn’t make it big.

Don’t get me wrong. I love journalism. I love interviewing people and sharing their stories and writing. But it doesn’t fulfill me like acting does.

What got me on this path of thinking was watching the finale of my latest favorite show Glee. The show is about a group of high school misfits coming together in a glee club because they love singing and dancing. It doesn’t matter that they get thrown in trash cans, ‘slushied’, or bullied by everyone else in the high school. It’s their passion and they’re going to do it no matter what.

I was watching the finale and bawling. Partly because of the show and various storylines, but partly because it was hitting home. They knew they weren’t going to win regionals and wanted to just give up all together. Then their coach said to them, “Who cares what happens when you get there, when the getting there has been so much fun.”

So here’s to my journey, and that I don’t stop believin’ in what I want to do.