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Have you ever had a dream, or a goal, or a passion, that seemed somewhat impossible but you knew that if it actually occurred you would probably be happy and set for life?

I’m sure you have. I mean, haven’t we all?

My Passion: Performing

My dream, probably since grade school (or even younger) was to be a musical theatre performer and to make it on Broadway. Being in shows since I was 11, I loved being on stage, playing another character, singing, dancing, and basically having the time of my life. My most fond memories of high school and college were performing in shows, where I met some of my best friends and built relationships that will probably last forever (or at least, a really long time).

At one point in my life, I came to the decision that maybe I should pursue this dream, transfer to an arts school, and train to become that Broadway star I wanted to be. But something just held me back – perhaps it was the rational part of my brain – that told me that the competition is fierce, that I would be a starving artist, and that I was so good at the scholarly, academic thing that I really shouldn’t let it go to waste. And so, that dream went off and gone – and instead, graduate school took its place, where I have spent the past two years of my life and will be adding on an additional 3-4 as I start my Ph.D. (The saddest fact of the matter is that I have not been in another musical in over two years, which is really a bit troubling).

But suddenly, just when I pretty much saw the dream as dead, my sister brought my attention to a casting call that Glee was holding on Myspace.  Being a HUGE fan of Glee, I checked out the audition call and saw that by uploading a video onto their page you could potentially be chosen to star in an episode (or maybe more? I’m not really sure).

Ok, so this isn’t exactly Broadway, but getting a chance to star in a hit TV show full of singing and dancing was definitely something I wanted to look into. So, I learned one of the audition songs (Barbara Streisand’s “Don’t Rain on my Parade”) and downloaded the instrumental track. I was all set and ready to create my video.

But then, I caught really bad allergies and got really sick, which prevented me from singing to my fullest capacity. A week or two later, I created another video that was better, but still not my best effort. It had to do.

But then again, technical issues arose and in spite of the fact that I uploaded the video three times through three different computers, my video would never come up. The deadline has since came and went, and thus alas, another dream out the window.

So what exactly did I learn from this? That some dreams aren’t worth living? That some dreams just aren’t meant to be? I’m still trying to figure that out, but maybe what I can get out of all this is that the best I can do is try, to never really give up on the dream, as more opportunities will arise, and that maybe I should be thankful for the mini-dreams I’m living out today. So I may not be a Broadway star, or on Glee, but I’m headed toward having my degrees (and essentially for free) and no one can take that away from me. That’s pretty awesome. And as long as I’m happy, and passionate with what I’m doing, that’s all that really matters.

But what do you think? Are some dreams meant to just live inside our heads? If ever, should we give up on living the dream, and just be satisfied with what we currently have?

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