My Parents say that my future is on the horizon.

"Tell them the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it. "

Thank you Mona Lisa Smile for that great quote! And for squashing my dreams! Just kidding. During my commute to and from the theater each day I have an hour and a half to think about anything and everything.

My drive has become routine and fairly monotonous. The worst part of my drive just happens to be the last 5 miles of my trip home. It is a beautiful sight to be sure, but still that part of the drive takes the most out of me. Let me paint you a picture, as round the last few turns in the foothills coming into town you can see the entire city lit up at night. You can see the city from edge to edge in our little valley and it is a fantastic sight. It looks so beautiful and inviting. But then you get closer and you start to see the "flaws", the "imperfections", the "bad". I have lived here most of my life, sure I went away for school (if you call that away) but this has always been my home. So I started thinking how true that quote from Mona Lisa Smile is: "The horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it."

I have lost count to how many times people have told me that my career or future was on the horizon... and each time I get closer it slips away. Every time I feel like it is just within reach I blink and it is out there again and I have to begin the journey again. We make plans, we build, we organize, we strategize but at the end of the day things do not always work out the way we wanted. Which can be a real shocker to an actor. I began to ponder why we do it to ourselves; not only as actors but as humans beings, what makes us keep pounding our head on the wall hoping that the wall will fall instead of giving us a splitting headache? I couldn't come up with an answer.

Where did those plans for that show I was writing go? Why am I not a full time actor? Why am I still living in this small town? What happened to my so called "vocal career"?

Oh, how those thoughts have hounded me for the past couple of days! Then the other night, as I was driving home, it came to me. Even though the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it the objects don't! CAMP ALERT!!! The goals that we set for ourselves may be "out there" and sometimes you may not be able to see them. Perhaps from lack of trying or maybe because there are new adventures that have loomed on the horizon before you reach your destination. Or maybe they are no longer there because you have gotten there and just haven't looked down at your feet. Or maybe you got there and you were too blinded by the flaws and imperfections that you kept on driving, too afraid to stop.

I do it all the time. I am too afraid to stop. Too afraid to see what would happen if I took a leap. Heck, even too afraid to take a baby step. The great thing about dreams is you can almost always turn the car around and go back...as long as you catch it in time.

So, here is to staying positive and driving towards those dreams...