I am Free

With spring comes rebirth, renewal, new beginnings to celebrate. Today I am celebrating something greater than any holiday, anniversary, or birthday. Today is the day I became a full-time potter.

I first visited California when I was 18 years old. A friend of mine was doing a co-op program here, and invited me to come visit him when he was working here. I stayed for two weeks, and while here sent out my headshots to a couple of agents. I got a really favorable response from one, who suggested that I stay here and pursue acting as a career. Oh I wanted to so badly, but I was 18, and when I called my mom to tell her, she was begging me to come home. So I did. What did I know, I was 18. I was bit by the acting bug for a while after that, but supporting yourself in New York and trying to be an actress is even less glamorous than it is in LA. So needless to say, rent and bills took priority over a dream and soon I had to accept reality. I somehow became a medical biller/collector. After a few years, I met my husband and endlessly talked about how I would love to move and live in Los Angeles. We were married on September 17, 2005. Two weeks after we returned from our honeymoon, he was offered a job in Los Angeles, CA. We packed up our clothes, threw out all the furniture, put our Weimaraner in the back seat of a 1997 Jeep Cherokee and headed west. I quickly found out that I was no longer the cute 18 year old with no responsibility, but a married 26 year old, and that is like being 45 in show biz years. I needed a job. So I went back to doing what I did best. Being a medical biller/collector. This job did not lend itself to a flexible schedule required to audition, and so yet again, my acting dream fell on the back burner. One of the women who worked with me had a daughter who took pottery classes at the Burbank Community Center. I’ve always wanted to try the wheel and enrolled in the next available class. I was hooked. Today is the day that has been ten years in the making. Everything in my life for the past ten years led me to this place, to this moment. When during casual conversation, people asked me “ and what do you do?” I always cringed at the moment when I had to reply “I do medical collections”. You certainly did not reply “an actress” because everyone is an “actress” in LA, and then you just sound stupid and shallow. Somehow what you “do” sums you up to the person asking the question and I was soooooo not a medical collector. I wanted to scream “No look at me, I am creative and I am so much more and…” Today I can proudly say “I am a potter”, and if the faith allows, I will have acting as a hobby :)