Do you ever have moments in life, where you think to yourself, “Maaaan, I wish I would have (insert thing you wish you would have done).” Who am I kidding? Of course, you’ve had moments like that. But, more specifically, have you thought that way about the career path you are currently in?
I think about it a lot and I think that is because I have taken lots of different routes to get to where I am right now.
First off, I 100000% thought that I would be DISCOVERED by the time I turned 18. True story. I didn’t think I would ever actually have to go to college because I would already be a world famous actor. Straight child prodigy status. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, that didn’t happen.
Not only did I not sky rocket into stardom at a young age, but I also didn’t shoot up to the top of the acting world of my college as quickly as I assumed one would. Basically, college is a micro version of Hollywood. You still have people that are director favorites, who get cast in everything, and who are usually great people but sometimes just really not. It took me almost three whole years to finally be cast as a leeeeeeeading laaaadddddy (said in your best actor voice). I stayed relatively at the top for about a year or so and then…I graduated.
HELLO ROCK BOTTOM AGAIN! I moved to Chicago with friends to take on that acting scene like the role-hungry-money-poor actor that I was. I auditioned a ton, and got a few things. I found a love for sketch comedy and performed with a great group of people – some of who are still my good friends today – and I landed my first equity role. Sidenote: Being an equity actor is the only real way you’ll ever make money doing theater. Everywhere else you’ll rehearse 70 hours for pizza and beer. WHICH AIN’T HALF BAD! And, then it kind of hit me that I just wasn’t cut out for the mean streets of acting.
You need to eat, breathe, sleep, talk, love acting. You need to want to be an actor more than anything in the entire world, and I just didn’t. I wanted to be a well-paid, health insurance covered, probable stay-at-home Mom, one day. And, while I loved Chicago (and I really do, I will brag about Chicago til the cows come home) I missed my family and friends back here on the East Coast.
Good news is, I moved back to Boston! HI! And, I did an awesome show here. And, while this blog has become my outlet for creativity, I do hope to get back into theater, on a casual level, one day.
This is a long-winded back story to why I now feel like I am going to be kind of forever in a job jumping position til I am that ever coveted stay-at-home Mom position so I often find myself envying those who have, what I deem as, “career” jobs. For example, teachers, nurses, social workers, therapists, etc.
For those jobs, you follow a very specific schooling path, and then you enter that career world, and then you live in it, and then you exit the career world and live out the rest of your days on a lovely beach cottage in a quaint Cape Cod town. Sure, I may be describing my dream of retirement but I am sure other share it with me.
I, on the other hand, will probably be in a handful of positions, all carrying varying weight and responsibilities in a number of different industry verticals before I say PEACE OUT HR.
I guess what I mean is, sometimes I wish I went to school for something I actually ended up doing. Sometimes, I think to myself, I wish I became a veterinarian. My affinity for animals would have done well there. My severe dislike of blood, needles, and sick animals would not have done well there but, hey, you win some, you lose some.
Sometimes, I wish I was a teacher like a number of other women in my family. But, I think teachers are under an immense amount of pressure to shape the minds of the world’s youth and aren’t paid nearly enough so I thought I’d leave that up to much more compassionate and talented women like my mother and several of my friends.
And, then sometimes I think, well, maybe I am using what I grew up loving and what I went to school for. I mean, I am in sales. Sales has to be one of the top careers for having to act your way through just about everything. I can tell you right now that this solution is going to change the entire layout of your company’s future and may actually change the face of this planet.
Obligatory hilarious performance photos. They never quite catch you making a normal face.
How about you guys? Do you ever think to yourself, ya know, if I could go back and change things, I would have gone into being a mermaid? Or something like that?
gone banannas 