I was in sixth grade when I landed my very first audition for an audiobook narration gig. I got the part, thanks to my music teacher who found the talent to record books for the kindergartners. I remember that day well. It was a dual narration with a boy who had a similar scratchy voice as me. But my audiobook narration career was put on hold for a few decades until I found my childhood journals decades later.

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I've kept journals since I was eight years old and in 2021, trying to figure out the next phase of my life, I stumbled upon a box that held my teenage years. Excavating my past proved to be useful. There I found a young girl who was embarrassed to tell anyone about her dream to be a stage actress. Eventually it turns out she did tell her sister and a friend, and apparently they received it well. She wasn't laughed at after all, to her surprise and relief. Reading the passages written by the girl I was, to read about her fear and shame about wanting something that she thought others would laugh at, was heartbreaking. Was I, after all those years, still living in that fear?

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I loved acting in my grade school years. I found myself in all of our school plays soaking up the joy of rehearsal and being on the stage. And when it came time to go to university I was invited to apply for a scholarship in a theatre program. But I didn't even try when my mother resisted the idea that I go away to school. What would I do with an acting degree anyway? 

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Decades passed. I earned a bachelor's degree, married, had children, earned a master's degree, faced loss after loss, and tried on all sorts of career possibilities. Teaching Yoga since 2011, and teaching in the corporate setting at General Motors since 2013, I felt I needed something more. My creative energy needed another outlet.

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Finding those journals was fortuitous. They forced me to ask difficult questions about myself. That's when I realized, after a few fresh cries over those journals with already tear stained ink, that it was time to revisit acting. My children didn't rely on me as much as they used to. I had moved on from my marriage and had a partner who supported me in ways no one ever has. I had been thinking about narrating audiobooks for a few years. I had acquired some of the equipment for other reasons.

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It was time.

 

And so, here I am. Taking acting classes regularly (they feel like lifeblood at this point and I would argue they are exactly that), and diving into my sound booth to play.

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I wonder what happens next...

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