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Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

WISH YOU WERE HERE

“We all get at least one good wish a year….over the candles on our birthday.  Some of us throw in more.  On eyelashes….fountains….lucky stars. And every now and then one of those wishes comes true.  So what then?  Is it as good as we hoped? Do we bask in the warm glow of our happiness? Or do we just notice we got a long list of other wishes waiting to be wished? We don’t wish for the easy stuff. We wish for big things. Things that are ambitious…out of reach. We wish because we need help, and we’re scared, and we know we may be asking too much. We still wish though, because sometimes they come true.”                 – Grey’s Anatomy


Sunday July 15th 2012, I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday. It was a simple birthday with family and my person. I enjoyed it. As I blew out the imaginary twenty-six candles on my birthday cheesecake, I wished for happiness, peace, love, joy, a different job, and life in a new city.
           I was presented with the opportunity today to interview for a flight attendant position with United Airlines. I have to call to schedule it. The interview is in Houston, TX. I have to pay for travel expenses (flight, food, and hotel). When I read the email, I was immediately hit with nausea, confusion, excitement, frustration, anger, happiness and more nausea. Unfortunately, I do not have the means to pay for the expenses to get me to the interview. I do not own credit cards. I am sure I could loan it from someone, but I don’t want to risk the money if I don’t pass the interview. It would be all for nothing.
I applied for this position, as well as one with Continental, when I was having a bad week at work. This was four months ago and I honestly thought nothing would ever come of it. It had been four months. I figured someone else got the job. I have my good and bad days at my current job, but no matter what I do I still make the same amount of money. No matter how bad it gets, I still have a job. It pays the bills. I have made some good relationships, some in the office I work in and some in the other offices all over the United States. I am thankful for the experience I have gained, but seriously? I handle registrations, Department of Transportation rules and regulations. I have learned more than I have ever wanted to know about rules and regulations for truck drivers. I went to school for acting. I have been in plays. I have been a stage manager. I have been a dresser for actors. I have been on run crew. I was trained to do amazing things! Instead I sit behind a desk, forty hours a week and do data entry.
      I cannot sit here, writing and except an opportunity to just fall into my lap. I just don’t think this flight attendant position is my opportunity. I want to move to a city where I can work in film, television and theatre. I do not care if I never act again. I love the production side of entertainment. I like to be there from the beginning…watch the actors develop and see a show grow from nothing into something profound. All I really want is to be a part of a theatre family again. I miss my college theatre family, but now it’s time to find a new theatre family.
I thought being a flight attendant would allow me to move to an exciting new city. Truth. However, the demanding hours and rigorous schedule, it would be like I didn’t even live there. I want to be able to settle down, work somewhere interesting and have the flexibility to audition and/or work in a theatre.
I am at a crossroads in my adult life. I am stuck with a decision I cannot seem to make. Do I take a chance? Do I take a risk? Do I just stay where I am, save up money, and then move to a city of my choosing? I just feel stuck.
I have a choice and I just have to figure out what I want to do. I have to decide what I think is best for me for this moment in my life. As I sit here weighing the pros and cons, a hear the voice of Jiminy Cricket in my head.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star

As dreamers do

                                                             Like a bolt out of the blue
                                                  Fate steps in and sees you through
                                                        When you wish upon a star
                                                           Your dreams come true


Wishes on eyelashes, wishes on stars, wishes on fountains, wishes on candles. We wish. I still wish though, because maybe it will come true.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Staring at the Sun

“When it comes to our blind spots…maybe our brains aren’t compensating…maybe they’re protecting us.”
                                                                        -Meredith, Grey’s Anatomy

Have you ever stared at the sun for a really long time? Took too many pictures with a flash and see all these little white spots?
I did not want to write tonight. After an exhausting thirty minute cry session, I said “Fuck it, I’m going to sleep.” However, this quote is exactly why I was crying. Blind spots. No, not the blind spots we learned about in driver’s education…the blind spots in life.
            My brain can be best described as an overprotective mother. I know this because I’ve been so blind to the things that have really mattered in my life. Love, happiness, and a career. Because let’s face it; nowadays, you are not getting ANYWHERE without a career to pay those bills, and in my case those lovely loans from attending a private college. I wish my brain would stop protecting me, but maybe there is a reason to its madness. Maybe I’m just not ready.

Love. I dream of falling in love. I dream of being in love. I had a chance at real love when I was 18. I am talking butterflies, fireworks, homeruns, movie magic it was all that and more. I chickened out. I ran the other way and I lost him. This wonderful, perfect person who made everything about life worth living---okay, okay it sounds completely cheesy; but, I am being 100% honest. Thinking about him now and knowing where I would be today if I were with him, I’m not quite sure I want that life. I know I am nowhere near ready to be married or in a relationship. I’m still struggling with trust issues after a traumatizing sexual assault. I’ll get there one day. I will have that movie magic, real life, butterflies, and firework love. My brain is just protecting me until I am completely healed mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Happiness. If you ask anyone what they want in life or what they wish, most will answer “to be happy.” Happiness is available to anyone and they chose is yours. You can chose how your day goes and if unforeseen circumstances get in the way, you can control the outcome by how you will react. This makes me think of a quote I heard over and over by a college professor, “Control what you can control.” I can control my happiness. I am going to choose to be happy from this moment on. I’ve been blind to my happiness, my brain isn’t protecting me on this one—I have a job. I have friends. I have family. I am healthy. I am breathing. I am living. I cannot control my situation at this moment, but I can chose to be happy with what I have and know that there is more to come. 2012 is my year. 2012 is my year to be 100% happy with the life I have and will have. To live in the moment of here and now and not tomorrow or yesterday.

Career. I said at the beginning of the year that 2012 is my year to find a job in the entertainment field. As most of you know, I went to school for acting. I love acting. It is my true passion. I love art. I love writing—it is another one of my passions. I love being behind the scenes of a show. I love production. So, I’ve decided to be a writer/producer/actor/production management/stage management/director’s assistant/production assistant. My passion in life is to create, to evoke emotion, to entertain. It is an extremely hard career choice, I know this. I believe I have the passion and the drive to get me to that place—to that career I have always wanted. Whether, I am center stage, behind a camera, I just know I belonging in the arts. It may happen tomorrow, it may happen in a few weeks, it may happen in months---YEARS (well I hope not years)…I’M GOING TO GET THERE.

“When it comes to our blind spots…maybe our brains aren’t compensating…maybe they’re protecting us.”

The brain is the body’s most mysterious organ. I cannot say for sure when my brain will tell my heart that I’m ready to stop being protected—that it is okay to take a chance, to take a leap of faith to stare directly into the sun….with sunglasses, mind you. I don’t really want to go blind. Or see those annoying white spots.
But then again, maybe all this talk of love, happiness, and career is just my brain’s way of telling my heart that I’m just not ready for all that.  That I cannot change lanes just yet and crash into the SUV…and that protecting me is the best way until my opportunity comes to get into the other lane.