I Was Born To Be A Dancer

Joy dancing in the rain

"Ugh, I can't do it.  It's a good thing I was born to be a dancer, not a writer."

"I think you were born to be something else.  Like a mother."

"No, I was born to be a dancer."

"I think you were born to be a mother because you're kind and like kids."

"I was born to be a dancer."

"I don't think so."

"But I practice dancing all the time.  It must be that I was born to be a dancer."

"Sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will."


I overheard this very enlightening conversation between Joy and Lizzy.  If you were to ask Joy what her talent is, what she wants to be when she grows up, she will tell you that she is a dancer.  She will tell you to sit there and watch her dance.  If your eyes so much as wander away from her, she will grab your face and turn it back toward her instructing you to watch her.

Joy loves to dance.  She dances all the time.  She will dance in front of strangers, she will dance in church, in a restaurant, in a store.  She doesn't care.

But just because she loves dancing, desires to be a dancer, and practices all the time, it does not mean that she was born to be a dancer.  I won't even get into the hundreds of reasons (like the fact that she will probably be around six feet tall when all is said and done) why Joy will probably not end up being a dancer.  That's not my point.  What struck me during the conversation was Joy's final comment:

But I practice all the time.  It must be that I was born to be a dancer.

And Lizzy's final response:

Sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will.

I had a lot of dreams when I was a kid.  I wanted to be the first female president.  I wanted to be an astronaut.  I wanted to be an ice skater.  I wanted to be a forest ranger.  I wanted to be a teacher.  I wanted to be a missionary.  I wanted to have twelve kids.  I wanted to a whole lot of things.

It must be that I was born to be a presidenting, astronauting, ice skating, forest rangering, teaching, missionarying, mother of twelve kids.

I got a degree in public administration and worked for three years in a township office before deciding I wasn't cut out for the harshness of politics.  I get sick on roller coasters so I'd never last through astronaut training.  I took three rounds of skating lessons before realizing I was never going to be very good because I didn't like to fall.  I took a few crop and soil sciences classes in college before deciding being a forest ranger wasn't very conducive to where I wanted to live the rest of my life (the closest state park is forty-five minutes away).  I applied to the college of education and was accepted before I decided I did not want to be a teacher after all.  I went on five mission trips which I loved, but I don't think I could handle it full time for the rest of my life.  I had three kids before deciding twelve was pretty unrealistic for me (preeclampsia with David, post partum depression after all three kids, hyperemesis-severe all day sickness-lasting for my entire pregnancies with both Lizzy and Joy).

Sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will.

Instead of being president, I settled for village councilwoman.  Instead of being an astronaut, I bought a telescope and look at the stars with my kids.  Instead of being an ice skater, well, I plan to take my kids ice skating this winter.  Instead of being a forest ranger, I take my kids on hikes in the woods and teach them about nature.  Instead of being a school teacher, I am a homeschooling teacher.  Instead of being a missionary, I reach out to those around me.  Instead of having twelve kids, I have three who sometimes seem like twelve.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will.

I don't regret the decisions I've made in my life for even one second.  I am exactly where I am meant to be doing what I was born to do even if it isn't what I thought I wanted to be when I was younger.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will.

Sometimes they are better.