Friday, May 10, 2013

Missing Pieces



I know Friday’s aren’t t the best days for blogs, but hey, I can’t control when I’m inspired to do one! I was on my way to work this dreary morning in Dallas and I was listening to my favorite album (as of late) on my phone. It is definitely the Rock of Ages soundtrack. If you like classic rockmusic, I would highly recommend it! It has some really cool mixes of a couple of songs too, but I digress. Rock music always does something to me internally, where I feel as if it is flowing through me. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this visceral reaction to music, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to have this feeling. It puts me in a great mood, which we all need when entering the office, haha!

While in this state and thoroughly enjoying the music, I was coming up with some really cool ideas for dancing, performing, etc. If you don’t know me, dancing is my artistic passion. It just gives a release of all of these big things that I feel or experience and just cannot be expressed in a different medium. I’ve often lamented on the fact that I am not an amazing singer, because I feel as if they can express some big things that I just cannot. Now that I’ve returned to dancing regularly, I have a constant way to express whatever I’m going through. It does a few things: 

1.  It makes dealing with bad things easier and it makes me really experience and cherish happy things.

2. It helps me to remember feelings about various events long term. While I was in grad school with my nose at the grindstone, I find that I have trouble remembering a lot of those 3 years. I think it was because I did not allow myself the time to really reflect on what was going on.

3. It makes me strive to find the perfect place in this world for me. 

I wanted to specifically talk about #3 a bit more. We all have goals that we want to reach within life. I think that because of the way that we are all moved through the American education system that there is a strict focus on our careers. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as being financially stable helps us to achieve other goals such as starting a family, becoming a homeowner, etc. The only thing that I would caution is that it really limits an individual in achieving their FULLEST potential. If I wouldn’t have went back and tried to make dance teams at age 25 (older in the dance world, haha) I would have never gotten to this level of contentment. I also would have been feeling pretty stagnant within my life as after school is over and you’re working, you’re just working. After being involved in so much for so long, I felt like something was missing. Or I was missing some key to happiness.
I was missing the rest of myself. I don’t think dance completely fulfills that missing piece, but it is a big part of it for me. My relationships and continuing cultivation of them was a piece. Being creative in general is a piece. The point I want to make is that I didn’t and still do not know all of the pieces of myself. I could be an awesome guitarist/rock god or I could be a talented painter. I won't know unless I visit those interests. As adults, I think we sometimes feel that we don’t have time to discover new things about ourselves; that time has passed. THAT IS A MYTH. Don’t ever settle; you don’t know what you may be missing!