New plans for 28!? Here goes...

The show Friends didn’t start until the characters were in their late twenties. I just had an unrealistic idea of what 28 would like back in high school. Grade 11 was a particularly terrible social year for me and I spent most of it in the back of the library by myself. And what would get me through all that melodramatic teen angst, was thinking about how I would have it all figured by the time I was 28. 28 was this magical number in my head when I was 16. At 28 I would be settled and successful and happy. But 28 the real “grown-up Andrea”, is living with her parents, with student loans up to her eye-balls, laid off and unemployed...yikes! It is really quite a mess, actually.
There are two ways to go into mess... defeated or putting up a big fight. The last time I went into a mess defeated I can honestly tell you I nearly died. I was lucky enough to have family and a few dear friends push me along until then I began to heal on my own. And while I healed I began to want all the things I used to want in the back in the library, but the years that have passed since 16 have added a few more things to that list. I do wanted be successful and settled, that is what I have always wanted.
I don’t maybe it is all the TV shows and books I read about all the places I have never seen in my life, but I want go out in the world and check things out! I want to see words I have read, come to life. I want to have an awesome stash of Facebook pictures that say, “Look at me, I am at Eiffel Tower!”
So, how do I get to travel and be settled and successful in a career that I am passionate about? That is a question I have been contemplating the last year of my life. Then I got laid off and now this question is really the center of my very being. So I had to sort through the facts. Things I truly know about myself.
1. I love being Canadian, it is very much a part of who I am. I say eh, just to friggin’ say it, eh!? There are many opportunities to advance my career and make my mark in this beautiful country. (But if I ever get the call for Saturday Night Live writing, I am out! )
2. I love TV with my heart and soul. I love the acting, writing, directing,etc... I am so excited for season premiere season, I may pass out! It is my dream to be a part of making a TV show, it why I went into broadcasting and I let fear make me settle for radio. I have to legitimately give myself the chance to get into TV and comedy writing.
3. I deserve a break! A long and wonderful vacation to marvel at beautiful things all over the world. I went to work every day with pneumonia, on a broken ankle after a spending the night sobbing and not sleeping. I have dragged myself to work and masked every problem that I had to deal with when I got out of there, with all the work that piled up. And now there’s no work to throw myself into anymore but maybe there is so much more. I need to go out and explore.
So how can I make both 16 year old and 28 year old Andreas happy? Well, here’s what I am thinking;
-After I going to Winnipeg to party with all my funky cousins September 15th to 21st, I am going to party with my other funky cousins in San Francisco for 10+ Days, with my Mommy of course! If I could somehow figure out a way to get to LA in an affordable way, I could see TVland with my very own eyes! *sigh*
- Then in November, I am taking the family tour on the road to England and Ireland and spend 4 weeks traveling around. I am going to take a 2 week Contiki tour around Europe and go to Edinburgh by myself. Eeeek! I’m SO excited!
- Okay, now this could sound excessive but I also want to go somewhere tropical in December. I was born in Winnipeg, I lived in Saskatoon, and I have suffered through way too many of Calgary’s supposedly “mild” winters and anti-climatic summers. I am ready to sit on a beach with a drink in my hand just chillaxin’. I think I earned some chillaxin’ time! (I am trying to convince myself!)
- And then when I get all that travel itchin’ out of me, I want to come back to my home Canada and go to work. I want to move to Toronto and work anywhere that will take me, while taking Comedy Writing courses at night at Second City!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had an Emmy speech written since I was 17... I need to try to get there and use it! Frig, if I could just get coffee for a writer on Saturday Night Live I would be in such a state of bliss! I am insane, right? There is just something about this time in my life that makes insanity, feel like the way to go.
Anyways, that is what my heart truly wants for my future. I am putting it out there for you to read and the universe to know! Also, I would like to lose the weight and win the lottery... just sayin’.
I am excited to see if and how I can make all this happen. Maybe, I will land on my fat ass but I have to wish, I have to try, I have to fight for the life that I want. Now’s my chance!