We Are Who We Are

So this week, I've been thinking a lot about dancing, what it means to me, and also how I can make it work for me as a career. I always thought that I would be a professional dancer when I grew up, but as I got older, I realized that I wasn't all that good and I also started developing bad knee and back problems, meanwhile getting the comedy bug. I "retired" when I went to college, but still found ways to dance in spite of it [my friends Johnna, Genna and I turned our laughable "modern dance and modeling" class at Hinds into a hip and sexy experience, in spite of the fact that our teacher was a million years old.] I took classes with other dancer friends of mine in Jackson, and when I moved to Chicago, I really started taking my choreography seriously. Now, I am less involved in the comedy world, at least on the performance side of it, and it is nice to be getting so much dance work.

So as I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a little studio that I could use whenever I wanted it, I also thought that the other supplemental career that I would like to have along side it is being around kitties. Cats, kittens, anything--I love them all. I honestly thought, oh, if I could pet kitties or find them homes as my day job and choreograph as my other job, I would be so happy. Yes, petting cats and dancing. The same dream I've had since I was, oh, three years old. Growing up, I always had 2 calendars in my room--one a dance calendar, the other a kitten calendar. My walls were filled with dance photos, pointe shoes, and kitty pictures. When I was in 4th or 5th grade, I wrote and illustrated a book for ROTOC/ GATES [all my ROTOC ladies in the house say "OH YEAH!!" Jill, Sarah, GET YO HANDS UP!] called "The Cat Who Wanted to Dance" which was about a fat cat named Lily who wanted to dance, but was too chunky, but through diet and perserverance, she was able to slim down and perform in the Nutcracker. Neurotic, yes, but that's the life of a dancer, whether or not you are a human, right? And yes, I drew a cat in a tutu.

So this realization hit me this week. In spite of the fact that things can turn on a dime and we are dealing with major life changes good and bad every day, some things remain exactly the same. Although I've changed a lot over the years, deep down I'm still me. I'll always be me, a shrimpy shy girl who likes kitty cats and ballerinas.