"the pursuit" : an introduction

This month was my 26th birthday. And for some reason that number really freaked me out. Don’t ask me why, but I have this habit of rounding up any and all numbers to the closest big number in my head. So when I turned 26, I thought, oh my GOD, I’m practically a few days short of fifty. So in my ridiculous mid-twenties miniature mid-life crisis, and as I stumbled through a particularly draining audition season in New York City, I found myself feeling a little blue and searching for a little pick-me-up.

Now there’s only so many cups of coffee and so many mugs of ice cream a girl can eat in a day, so I funneled my getting-older blues and my search for some renewed sense of energy and purpose into learning. I poked around the clearance shelves at Barnes and Noble and bought myself “The Happiness Project,” which I’d been wanting to read for awhile. I started reading on the subway instead of scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, listening to every podcast that pulled my interest, and taking classes of all sorts. Then last week, my alma mater, Oklahoma City University, hosted a spring break workshop for current students in the city. The alumni fund and organize a week of classes and seminars where Broadway dancers, casting directors, agents, and other special guests in the industry all come speak to current performing arts majors about life and show business in New York City. Our awesome alumni who host the workshop decided to add alumni classes this year, so, feeling inspired by my newfound quest for knowledge and purpose, I attended the alumni classes on a Wednesday night, where I listened to a seminar led by Matt Rodin and Kate Lumpkin about social networking.

Matt Rodin spoke about creating content -- funneling what you’re passionate about into content for the different social networks, and how that can be a beneficial and significant creative outlet for sharing what you’re passionate about with the world. Or at least with your social network bubbles. So I started to brainstorm: What was I passionate about? Other than dancing and performing, I’ve always thought I never really had another passion. So this really made me dig deep down and think about what I enjoy. Well, I enjoy when I get to visit my alma mater or my old high school and share what I’ve learned about auditioning and life in New York City . I enjoy speaking to students about how they too can pursue a career in the performing arts. I enjoy reading self-help books and hearing advice from professionals in my career about how to continue on my journey. I enjoy journaling and writing down what I learn, what I enjoy, or what I struggle with each day. I enjoy getting inspiration from my husband’s blog “Dancers of New York,” and hearing about different artists' experiences in their careers. But how do I take these passions and generate content that anyone would have any interest in or that creates something positive to put out in the world?

Ever since picking up “The Happiness Project” and reading about Gretchen Rubin’s blog founded in her quest for happiness, I’d been toying in my mind with the idea of starting a blog of my own. I don’t know whether it was Gretchen’s clever and personal search for happiness or Matt’s zealous advocating for social media as a platform for creativity, but a few days later, I decided that a blog was the perfect format for sharing my passions and a sustainable creative outlet for my thoughts. So I made up my mind to put aside my fear of failure and dive into actually creating my blog.  

Hence, the pursuit became a reality. The pursuit is my reality. It’s a creative outlet for my pursuit of my career as a performer living in New York City. I’m not claiming to be the end-all be-all in regards to anything; I am not a scientist and have not studied what I’m speaking about. I’m not a renowned dancer or well-established dance teacher, or even a writer at all. I certainly have not put as much research as Gretchen did into her happiness project, and I’m certainly not a social media expert. I’m simply, and proudly, a working professional dancer living in New York City pursuing a career in show business. The pursuit is my still-in-progress, diving-in-without-really-knowing-how-to-swim blog journaling my observations, thoughts, and lessons I learn on my path through my career.

Why the title, you ask? Or maybe not, but this is my favorite part, so I’m going to explain anyway. I love quotations. When my words can’t adequately capture what I’m feeling, I turn to others’ words to relate to and make me feel as though I’m not alone in whatever I’m feeling. One of my favorite quotations of all time is this: “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I love performing; it’s what sets my soul on fire. And so, driven by the recent inspiration I’ve recently gathered from Matt, Gretchen, and the fire in my soul, I begin the pursuit. And I hope in sharing my pursuit with you, I will help ignite the fire in other aspiring artists to begin their own pursuit and be a source of practical advice, information, inspiration, and empathy as together we fearlessly pursue our dreams.