The Day When My Inner Child Needed Life Support

[christi pemberton]

Well, that is an interesting title to this discussion. How many of you ignored your childhood passion, because you felt that it was not realistic? How many of you believed that the reason why you may not have felt very satisfied with your work, or your career, was because you did not listen to that childhood passion, you did not pursue the thing that you really wanted to do? Everyone has a talent and passion for something, whether it is to become a writer, sing, create art paintings, etc....., but how many of us actually decide to pursue those passions? It is surprising how many people push down those childhood dreams, for a more "realistic" career. Now, I am not talking about when you were 7 years old and believed that you were Superman or Superwoman and tried to jump off of the backyard treehouse...no, I am not talking about that kind of dream....but, if your dream of being a Superman/Superwoman was actually a dream to help save people...maybe that is a career for you to become someone like a fireman, policewomen, or go into the military.

Since I was 2 years old, I have had a great love and passion for music. I used to play with my cousin's piano a lot. I loved making new songs and rhythms with it. One day, my mother heard me play, and she thought that it was my cousin practicing her piano lessons....but, she soon found that it was me playing "by ear", or playing with no previous piano lessons...I just played what sounded good, or what made sense to my ears. Since then, I have been involved in music of some sort....primarily as a dancer through childhood and then adulthood. I did not make music into a career until last January when I quite my job to work on my company, Global Crest full time.

Why was my "inner child" on life support, when I have been involved with music in some form throughout my life? I was not taking care of my passion and skill in music and dance. After my childhood, I was involved in music or dance for only a very short time, and then I would go back to my full time career and the stress. My inner child was actually an inner artist and performer, but I allowed that inner child to grow more sick every day, because I did not take care of her. I did not exercise this passion and skill for music and dance.

When I decided to take dance lessons again, it was for ballroom dance in 2008. At that time, I had not danced seriously for about 8 years. When I walked into the ballroom studio, I had a lot of stress from my regular job, and I wanted to do something to take control of my life....so, I walked in that studio during my lunch hour with every bit of confidence I had and said to the dance instructor: I want to take dance lessons and to be trained for competition. I did not want to do just a "social version" of ballroom, I wanted to train hard to whip my rear end back in to shape and compete other strong dancers. I could just hear the theme from Rocky in my head. I imagined myself doing all kinds of crazy, backbreaking exercises to become a powerhouse dance performer. Felt great. I was determined to give my inner child that life support it needed, with a boot to kick it right in the tush.

I trained with the Fred Astaire ballroom chain for 8 months, but realized that a privately owned studio is better suited for the kind of training I need to become a competitor, so I will have to search for that later. That experience in ballroom dance allowed me to see just how natural I felt when I danced...the training was exhilarating. I enjoyed the dance routines that were more sophisticated, yet stylish; and dancing was like a "second skin" to me, it was very natural for me.

Now I love performing music. I discovered that my fairly new MacBook computer had a software called Garageband, which allows me to create and produce music. Hoooraaayyy! Here is the life support again. Working with Garageband is an adventure, and it feels very natural to me. Whenever I tap on the keyboard (like a piano) to make new sounds and melodies, it just sounds right. It is like my fingers know what to do. Now I am creating several new songs, with three of them are almost done, or halfway done. Now, I just have to get the courage to record my singing voice.

My company was created in 2007, and that was really the first life support for my inner child. Global Crest promotes music and global affairs, which includes upcoming events that I am organizing to also help support non profits. Global Crest, however, was missing passion...and that passion had to come from me...that passion needed to come from a active musician/dancer. So, I had to go back to my childhood passion for music and dance again, so my body and heart could remember what it was like to be those things.

So that is how my inner child received, and is still receiving life support.

I would love to hear your story......