My “Why Act” Statement
A month ago, I woke up on a Saturday morning and decided to take control of my creative freedom and took the step to breathe life into a personal passion I have had since I was a child, but was just never quite brave enough to take the leap of faith on: Film & Television Acting.
I decided on that Saturday that it was time to take the jump, and by that upcoming Tuesday I was stepping foot into my first ever 12-week, evening acting class that would be the first of a series of doors that were opening in what felt like divine timing.
As a part of the curriculum, and as my first homework assignment, I had to write my “Why Act” statement, articulating what it was that was compelling me to pursue this with such unapologetic enthusiasm.
I’d like to share that now:
“Creativity has always driven me. Fully embraced and free in my childhood. Unfortunately that once unfiltered, free spiritedness became shackled by life. Shackled by fear of the unknown, fear of judgment by others, fear of embarrassment.
As I aged into teen years and young adulthood, I would exhaust all this mental emotional energy on desperately trying to prevent any of those things from happening that, in turn, it clogged up any space for true growth, expansion & personal creative freedom.
I have always been a spiritual person, believing in a higher purpose and power, but never really giving it a label. We are guided to things that we are meant to do and see and experience. People enter our lives and things occur at the exact moment we need to learn or expand into a new iteration of ourselves.
Acting, for me, has always been that one thing in my mind that kept presenting itself. An opportunity quietly knocking, asking to be seen, but a door I made every excuse not to open. Because of all those limiting beliefs that tethered me to a lesser version of myself, I kept that door closed, but my ear was always pressed up against it to hear if the little voice was still there… she always was. It came through in different ways. Sometimes it was a voice in my own head, sometimes through the voices of others, sometimes in a quote, a song, or a book.
Recently, after dealing with challenging personal life circumstances, I was forced to stop and reflect on my life and was required to be present with myself more times than I ever had before. During this time, I felt the little voice behind the door, gained some courage herself, and she got louder. The whisper turned into a shout, and I started to take action on what it was telling me. I kept taking steps despite all the usual fears that would’ve otherwise tethered me. This step towards a passion is an answered promise to my younger self, my past self, that I am going to be brave and listen to the voice that was always calling out to me. It’s a promise to myself that I’m going to listen to my intuition and do the hard thing and not choose complacency or fear, it’s an opportunity to step into my creative power in a way I never have before. I am thankful for all the years of fear because without it I wouldn’t be where I am seated right now. I’m so happy to be able to tell my younger self that I listened to her. I finally opened the door. I hope she’s proud of me too.”
I don’t know what the future holds for all this, but I’ve never felt this energized about anything and I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Thank you to my “circle” for supporting and loving me, endlessly. You know who you are 🩵
Open the door. Chase the dream. Choose the unknown.