Dreams of Being a Full-Time Juggler

"But I guess our dreams have come and gone
You gotta dream when you are young"
-Harry Chapin in "Dreams Go By"

"A bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of all the things that might have been"
-Paul Simon in "Slip Slidin' Away"

Everybody has a dream of doing something else - even non-jugglers may dream of being an artist, a professional athlete, or a rock star. But we live our humdrum lives in our safe profession always putting off our dreams for more practical reasons: security of money, acceptance in society, etc.

It doesn't have to be that way. We've got marketable skills and we should relax our anxieties about what other people think.

The whole concept for me of juggling for a money is brilliant. I relate it to non-jugglers that it would be like for some people to get paid to eat chocolate. Wouldn't the world be a much better place if everyone got paid for what they enjoyed. I may be a charlatan, but in my ideal world I would do tons more juggling and a lot less working in an office!

I'm not just talking about the performer personality type who thrive on their time in front of an audience. As a matter of fact, this concept is somehow more true for the hobbiest-type jugglers. These are often the ones that really love juggling the most, just for it's own sake. So why should they have to do something else? Maybe they should get a research grant for practicing juggling in order to further the art!

I think we need to move away from living our lives as others expect us to live them, or even as society has convinced us that we should live. We have to do what we genuinely want to do. It might be a bit more risky, but it's better than living with the regret of not having accomplished what the heart really desires.

I wrote those preceding paragraphs nearly 10 years ago but never finished this article. And I was a hypocrite, too; even though, I've been performing semi-professionally for 13 years, I've always had a straight office job. Well, the good news is that I quit my job last week and am embarking on a career as a full-time juggler. I couldn't be happier: my dream has come true!