The One Where Life Doesn't Go According To Plan
“If you want to make God laugh, tell Him you have a plan”
-my father to me, more times than I can count
Although I don’t consider myself to be a deeply religious person, I can’t ignore the lesson behind that statement. Growing up, I was always interested in stories. I was the girl who would escape into books and end up reading one cover to cover in a single sitting (Katie Kazoo, you’ll always have a special place in my heart).
There wasn’t a “lightbulb” moment, so to say, but some time in middle school, I realized that I didn’t just have to read stories. I could tell them, too. In fact, I already was every time I stepped onstage. I lived for performing from the time I was four, and fell in love with the idea of telling stories. I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. After years of dedication, that dream guided me through high school to college.
To London.
I don’t want to be one of those college girls who says that going abroad changed her, but it really did. It felt like I was in a whole other world for the five weeks that I was there. A world where I didn’t have to answer to anyone but myself. For the first time in my life, I felt free in a ‘I want to tell my own story because I’m realizing that maybe my story is one worth telling’ kind of way. If that makes any sense. It probably doesn’t.
It’s hard to put life-changing moments into words.
When I came home, I wanted to get right back out there. In fact, about two months after coming back, I texted my best friend who went on the trip with me and asked if it was too soon to book another flight out to London. It was. In fact, it wasn’t until about 18 months later that I finally got to go back to my favorite city. This time for a whole semester. Once again, I was surrounded by people who had different upbringings, beliefs, even languages than my own. And I was drawn to them.
It was magnetic.
My Show Business professor, who grew up in Canada and made his way to London, but was scared about how Brexit might affect his citizenship--I wanted to know his story.
Our tour guide in Rome, who grew up in England and majored in art history, but ended up moving to Italy because she went there in college and fell in love with the country--I wanted to know her story.
The taxi cab driver who, when driving past armored trucks outside some of Rome’s oldest and most famous monuments, said that they were there to protect the sites from bombs (like the ones that terrorized the German Christmas markets a few years back) and that was ‘just how life was’--I definitely wanted to know his story.
Made it back and even brought a friend (and by that, I mean my mom)
For years, I only had one direction. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. When I came back to the US for the second time, something in me had shifted. All I knew was that my number one priority wasn’t to be an actor anymore. It was to travel. It won’t always be pretty or easy, but it will be worth it.
I finished my degree, slowly draining my bank account in the process, and was left with a piece of paper and about $500. I finally got a job in healthcare after months of searching. After the promise of a steady paycheck was confirmed, I used $400 of that to book a flight to Los Angeles and cross one of my dream trips off my bucket list.
The City of Dreams definitely lived up to its name
So basically, yeah, life doesn’t always go according to plan.
But, hey, we’ve all got to start somewhere.