Oops!  They said it again. “Work in what you love and you won’t work a day in your life.”  They said it on a food show, no less.  (Well, what do you think I’d be watching?  Ok, I do watch other things, too.  But lots of food shows!)

Don’t Listen to Your Parents.  You don’t have to be a teacher.  You don’t have to be an accountant.  You don’t have to be a doctor or a lawyer, unless you want to be a doctor or a lawyer.  And think of the loans you won’t have to pay back!

There’s been so much written about Lin-Manuel Miranda lately.  (The creator and star of “Hamilton,” on Broadway, if his name doesn’t strike a chord.)  About how he was such a creative kid, was in all of the school plays, always wanted to CREATE……  and he did.

Sounds like me.  Started doing plays as a child, out of my garage in Brooklyn.  Yes, the garage door was the “curtain.”  Was an artsy-fartsy kid in school, so creative, always in the art rooms, or the band rooms, was in every school play, the second female lead in the senior play, in symphony band, marching band, jazz band, orchestra, chorus, and then went to college to become a teacher, because that’s what my parents wanted.

I still played a little music on occasion.  I still did some children’s theatre and a some cabaret shows later on, but real life kicked in.  There were no art teacher positions around, and at that point I couldn’t have supported myself in theatre, so I went off and did other things in order to pay the bills.  But, I wanted to be creative.  I wanted to be in the arts.  I wanted to “perform.”

You say, “But, you’re working on putting an amazing TV show together!”  Yup, that’s my dream.  I plan to get the sponsors together, and get the show produced and on the air.  But, sometimes real life interferes, and there are all those bills to pay.  Argh!

So, right here at the beginning of the year I am going to be a copycat and say, “Work in what you love and you won’t work a day in your life.”  Yup, I said it again!  So, follow your heart.  Go forward, and do what you love!