Sometimes it takes a Five-year Old

One thing to keep in mind: gutsy is relative. I am reserved by nature, I get that from my grandmother, who readily admits it is not necessarily one of the better traits she handed down. Allow me to illustrate:

• The riskiest activity I participated in during those crazy high school days was forking. Forking is exactly what it sounds like; we stuck plastic forks in the ground of the front yard.
• I took a job at the first company that gave me an offer because, as a pre-Obama 22-year old, I was concerned about my health insurance. That was a job in insurance administration, not something I ever dreamed of doing, and yet four and a half years later I am still in that line of work. I use line of work because I refuse to call it my career; insurance administration is not my career.
• I paid off my first big purchase, a new car, in less than two years because I did not want to keep paying through the nose from the high interest rate.

As you can see, I express traits that more closely align with those of a conservative middle-aged man rather than a woman in her twenties. So it came as quite a surprise to everybody who knew me that this past November I spent a great sum of money (a figure I have not totaled yet) to see the musical Wicked thirteen times. After one of the performances, several things were offered as incentives to donate to the organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. I made a quick decision to make a sizable donation to go backstage and meet the stars and snap a photo. It was a blast; I was shaking afterwards from the adrenaline coursing through my blood. I saw the show again the next day and actually waited at the stage door to talk to the stars again and have them sign my program and snap a couple more photos. When I relayed the story to my dad, he asked me to send him the photos so he could take a look. Later that week when I was having dinner at his house, his five-year-old son said to me, “Brooke, in the pictures of you with the people from Wicked you look really happy.” Kids, they have a gift for getting right to the heart of the matter. I looked really happy because I was really happy.

If going to the theater and writing about theater makes me happy, shouldn’t I go after that? I had started a blog a few months earlier, after thinking about it for over a year, but I was not committed enough. That moment crystallized what we all know, but can have difficulty executing: nothing will change if we don’t do anything differently than what we were doing before. Now I update at least once a week. And, though it is hard for me to swallow this fact, there is no way to know where it may lead. I won’t be able to see a show on stage every week, but if I want to change the direction of my life then I have to start somewhere. There are going to be more pictures of me looking really happy.

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Brooke’s Bio

I graduated from Iowa State University with a Liberal Arts degree. I currently work in benefits administration. I have a passion for Broadway shows and want to follow that passion. I started blogging last year as a first step to hopefully making writing my full-time job. Thanks for following my blog

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Brooke, your story is a perfect example of someone who is following what makes her happy. I wish you all the best in achieving your goals, and keeping that feeling of being really happy, alive within you.

Please share your comments with Brooke, who will be coming over to respond.

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