hello stranger.

Yesterday, I suffered through a rather terrible flight from Manchester to Newark. I flew Continental, which I’m convinced engineers their cabin to be as awkward and un-ergonomic as possible, maybe they wanted to stimulate the feeling of being trapped in a coffin. Anyways, most of the flight was unpleasant: I slept through the complimentary drinks/food and was pinned to the window seat so I couldn’t go to the restroom. It was only when we were unboarding that I met my seatmate a girl by the name of Caroline. As we walked off the plane together began talking and ended up suffering through our hour layover together over some mediocre airport food.

Caroline was a senior in college on the brink of pursuing an acting career in New York. She had just finished her summer involved in a theatre that had put on numerous different shows. While I felt like we had come from such different backgrounds and areas, we had also met at a very similar point in our lives and had so much in common. We spent the conversation talking about how much we loved the work we did this summer: for her acting, for me campaigning.

She then introduced me to the world of acting. A world of constant rejection and failure, only to succeed and be discovered at the most unlikely time. A world where ones work is so personal yet so easily criticized. A world where you become the characters you play and live out the plots written for you. It was a world so different than mine, yet a world I found quite fascinating. By the time I saw her board her next flight, I had the utmost respect for her and her passion for acting.

One thing she said really struck me, “If there is anything other than acting that you think you might consider doing, you have to leave acting and go do that. It’s just that difficult.” I envy her passion for acting and I believe that this is the commitment and desire that we all must have in our vocation and life.