Undoubtedly, the best thing about the job I do is the chance to meet so many people who are pursuing their passion.
I love to meet and talk to artists of all kinds. Whether they’re writers or dancers, directors or photographers, actors or musicians, they always share that common vision of doing what they love – even if it’s not the most profitable, easiest or smoothest road to follow.
I get a special delight out of interviewing teenagers. There’s just something so wonderful about meeting those young about-to-be-adults who are going after what they love, no matter what.
Just recently, I’ve had a chance to interview several of those.
There was Megan Twist, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter who’s just released her new EP, A Fine Line. (There was a story about Megan in the Aug. 9 edition of the Burnaby NOW. Check it out here)
Twist is taking this year ahead to pursue her dream of a career in music – and she’s realistic about how hard that’s going to be.
“It’s extremely hard, and I can only imagine that it gets a lot harder,” she said in an email chat from Croatia, where she was enjoying some down time at a family home. “Honestly, yeah, I’ll probably struggle emotionally and financially, but it’s fine by me. It’s my passion, my love and my life. …
“Music is always with me, through the happy and the sad, and it doesn’t give up on me, so I won’t give up on it. It’s all I want to do.”
Then, just a couple days ago, I had a chance to meet with three young dancers at Danzmode Productions: Kristina Akester, Nick Ventura and Rachael Withers. (Stay tuned for a story in the Burnaby NOW soon.)
They, too, all have their eyes on futures in the arts – in their case, dance – in some way, shape or form.
For Nick, who’s off to study at the London Contemporary Dance School, his ideal future would involve dancing with a company (perhaps, he hopes, the Hofesh Shechter Company) and then, in a few years, starting his own dance company.
He dances, he says, for the simple reason that it’s natural for him.
“It’s something that was built in to me,” he says, “and I just figured it out. … As long as I am in the dance arts, I will be happy.”
Rachael, who’s only 14 at this point, isn’t entirely certain what her future’s going to be but is definitely considering it as a career.
“That’s always good, if your career is something you love,” she pointed out.
And for her, that “something” is dance.
“It’s my favourite thing to do,” she said simply. “You should always find what you’re good at and keep working at it. Dance is what I’m good at. I just go with the flow.”
Kristina shared her favourite quote: “Earth without art is just ‘eh.’”
“If I didn’t have dance in my life, I would be just kind of ‘eh,’” she said.
She knows it’s not going to be easy. As a Canadian dancer, she says, opportunities are harder to come buy – it’s not easy to get work in the States, which is a much bigger market for dance than Canada.
But the very fact that it’s difficult is part of what motivates her to go after it.
“It’s all about the chase and how hard you have to work,” she said.
Meeting with that kind of enthusiasm always reminds me how important it is to pursue my own passions.
For me, that’s writing – not just the writing I get to do at work, but writing my own fiction – and singing. After a year of maternity leave, I’m returning to the choral world in September, and I’m itching to get back to the feeling of making music with a group of people who all love it the same way I do.
And it reminds me that all of us middle-aged cynics could take a lesson from those youth out there who are going after their own dreams – whatever those happen to be.
We could sit around and grumble about our lives – our humdrum jobs, our weary commutes, the soul-sucking housework and grocery shopping and everyday mundanities that make our lives feel blah.
Or we could actually get up and go and chase our own dreams.
We could believe – as Megan and Nick and Kristina and Rachael do – that anything is possible, if only we go for it.
Sure, it’s easy to say that they’re just young. The “real world” hasn’t had a chance to beat them down yet. They haven’t had to worry about paying bills and raising families and all the everyday things that mean sometimes paycheques do matter more than we’d like them to.
True enough.
But it doesn’t change the fact that these teens all have it right.
Whether it’s for our career or as an outside-of-work hobby – or both – we should be chasing our own dreams. We should be doing what we’re good at, what we love, what we’re passionate about, what fills us up and inspires us to reach beyond what we thought we were capable of.
Because in the quest for that kind of passion, we will become the kind of people who make the world a better place.
Surely that’s something we can all strive for, regardless of how old we are.
I’m in.
How about you?
