Take Your Passion and Make it Happen
That line from the theme song of the movie “Flashdance” keeps popping up in my mind lately when I think of my younger daughter, Maddi. That movie came out when I was twenty, the same age Maddi is currently. I’m happy to say the reason it makes me think of Maddi is NOT that she is an exotic dancer like the lead character of the movie. She is NOT. But she is following a dream this summer that requires us to say goodbye to her for a month as she heads off to Costa Rica.
While in high school, Maddi discovered yoga. She enjoyed it, found it calming and practiced it in a casual manner. When Maddi headed off to NYC to attend NYU on a fabulous scholarship (getting a perfect 36 on your ACT will do that!) she found a whole world of opportunities to practice yoga awaiting her. She fell in love with one particular school and even toyed with the idea of attending classes to train with them as a teacher at the same time as taking her full course load her second semester of sophomore year. While ultimately talked out of it as too much to take on at one time, it did break her heart; by then she had decided that she didn’t want to return to NYU for her junior year. She knew she wanted to transfer to another school to finish out her degree, and that would mean not only leaving the yoga school she loved so much but also the opportunity to train with them as an instructor. But for Maddi, Fate had a special opportunity waiting just around the corner.
It was discovered that this yoga school has a 200 hour, intensive, teacher training this summer at a resort/spa in Costa Rica. As her belated HS graduation gift, Maddi’s dad and stepmom generously offered to send her for the month of July to follow her passion and receive her teacher training. In two weeks, she will get a chance to follow this dream of hers. While it will be hard to send her out of the country for a month, I know this experience will be exciting for her. Hopefully exciting in a way that differs from the experience of my older daughter, Britt: At the end of Britt’s month-long stay in Paris during her junior year of college, she and classmates were standing outside of a cafe, reading the menu posted there. While standing on the sidewalk, scaffolding steps from an adjacent construction site came loose from the 7th story, fell and hit Britt on top of the head and she collapsed. That is a phone call you do not want to get when you are an ocean and half-the-US away. Long story short, Scandinavians apparently have very tough skulls and Britt eventually healed up just fine, recent Masters Degree in hand as proof!
So while I do hope Maddi’s time in Costa Rica is exciting for her, I hope it is limited to the excitement of the joyous privilege of getting to pursue what she loves. (Otherwise, I am not sure I will be able to handle my daughters traveling out of the country without me being heavily medicated first.) My darling Maddi, take your passion and make it happen!
- Posted in: Family ♦ Following Your Dream ♦ Life
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