Seven years ago things were on the up and up! My boyfriend and I had just moved in together, he was writing a soon to be successful screenplay and I was a thriving up and coming actor. Okay, so that’s how we saw it at the time, little did we know that was very, very far from reality.
He was an unemployed screenwriter and I was working at a hospital part time AND as a nanny part time, all while trying to become an actor full time. This was our life for five years, until we broke up.
He moved to NY and I on to better things, or so I thought. I moved out on my own, which felt great but I was still working as a nanny and, at that point, had been a “struggling actor” for twelve years. No, that is not a typo, twelve years is correct.
I had some success in Hollyweird, met some friends for life and made good money here and there. I had done a few guest starring roles in some pretty big TV series, a couple small parts in some films, commercials, music videos, blah, blah, blah. Even though I had a decent resume, knew 95% of the casting directors out there and had some good footage under my belt, I still wasn’t anywhere close to being able to provide for myself as an Actor. I was making about 75% of my living as a nanny, and to top it all off, I don’t even like kids that much. I will touch on the “life of a nanny to the rich and famous,” a little later because boy do I have some terribly awesome stories.
Anyway, back to my first world problems. One day after taking a solo trip to Portland Oregon, I had a realization. I was done playing the waiting game. I finally realized that is exactly what my life had become, just one long waiting room and if the Doctor was gonna take over twelve years to show up, then I was gonna go find another damn Doctor.
My lease was up, I hated LA, and I decided I wanted to get the hell out. I came across a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) website, signed up for the course, moved into my moms house to save money and soon I will be moving to China folks. Yep, I said CHINA!
I’m still heart broken over my ex, I’m still not positive I want to completely give up on my acting career and I have no idea what I am going to do with the rest of my life. I am very type A, so the fact that I don’t know where I’ll be in 10 years or let alone next year, really freaks me out, but I am trying to live in the present cause that’s what my therapist told me to do. 🙂
Song of the day: Two Of Us by Mike Edel
Hardly Grown Up 