I love a good confusing yet alliterative title.
I am going back to school in a few months and, while I have enough life experience to know that a few years of school doesn't necessarily determine the course of your life, I keep feeling like somehow I'm cementing the fact that directing theatre is what I was put on this earth to do.
That said, I've thought about and am drawn to many other things in addition to theatre. The most consistent of these daydreams has been being a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist and, if we're in Pony World* and my math block weren't an issue, a neuroscientist of some kind.
I love the human psyche, and I especially love hearing how the brain affects our experiences and choices. For a long time, it seems that it was the constant debate of nature (physiological factors) vs. nurture (evironment). Recently, however, I keep hearing more and more about how experiences can actually change the structure of your brain, or the concept of neuroplasticity. In other words, nature IS nurture.
Babies whose parents talk to them more and read them stories, etc, end up having significant differences in the language centers of their brains. Years of drug addiction can actually alter a grown person's brain so that it's harder for them to regulate dopamine, seratonin, and all those other feel-good chemicals. The idea of neuroplasticity can either seem bleak- if your parents screwed up, you can actually end up brain damaged- or hopeful- a person can continue to change their brain and their way of being throughout their whole life.
Thinking about that kind of thing gets me lit up in a similar way that theatre does. I don't feel like I'm making the wrong choice going back to school to get a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing, but I do find it interesting that there are other lives I could have lead, and other things that could have made me happy, too.
What about you? I don't get too many hits, but if you're reading this, go ahead and leave me a comment- what would you be if you weren't what you are? I'm talking something that is in no way related to what you're doing for a living (or studying) right now.
*Pony World = A world where you can have anything you want, including a pony. Coined by the fabulous Pony World Theatre
