Starting at a very young age we are asked over and over again what we want to be when we grow up. This can range form a doctor or a teacher to superman or a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Either way we have our dream. As we get older and older we shift our dreams to more realistic standards. We eventually find an area we like and decide on a steady career that will pay the bills. And slowly we let those old dreams go.
When I was young I wanted to be a teacher. Its silly but my dad was a teacher and well...I was a daddy's girl. It wasn't till I was older that I found activities I loved and could potentially get a job in, but those jobs weren't financially reliable and actually getting the job was a long shot. My dream was to be a lighting technician or a designer. Yet as I moved further and further into my love I experienced a lot of negativity from my parents.
"Where are you going to use such skills? Debate is a much better use of your time," or "The theater industry is so unreliable, its not realistic to look at a career in such an area." I listened to them and I walked away. I'm in school to be a teacher and I will probably never have a serious job in the lighting industry.
Yet last month I did lights for my old high school and it was intoxicating to be back doing what I loved. I realized, again, why I put up with all the frustration of the electronic malfunctions and high stress situations. There was nothing more invigorating than walking into an ugly and blank cafeteria and transforming it into a stage.
I was doing these lights as if they were a job. I drove down and worked long hours. While in Logan I drew sketches, looked up light throws, and played with unconventional gel combinations. My life for a few months was thrown back into theater and while it was stressful I loved every moment of it. At the end of the production I felt accomplished, but sad at the same time. I had worked to hard and loved it so much. Leaving it now felt wrong.
About two weeks after my completion of the project my mom gave me an envelop from the director of the show. He had decided to pay me for my work. I almost went to give it back to him, but something stopped me. I had just been paid to do something I loved. Most people will go their entire life without having such a thing happen. We may like our jobs but to get paid for something you love is an entirely new experience.
About two weeks after this my boyfriend told me that he may be hired as a setter at his rock climbing gym. I was overjoyed for him. I don't know if he understood why I was so excited for him...he just kinda laughed at me. I just think that it is so cool for him to get paid to do something that resembles an art...to get paid to do something he loves. And not just once, like with my lighting, but as his job he would do something he loved with an unimaginable passion (really its more of an obsession for him).
I just wish that everyone could experience, just once, what its like to get paid for something you love. Something you gave up long ago as a viable job option. And finally I want to thank Mr. Gordon Hutlburg and Miss Susan Berrend for this amazing opportunity. For two months they allowed for me to live my dream...to have my dream job. No amount of thanks will ever truly express how much I appreciate that opportunity.
I lived a dream and not many people can say that.
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