My own Happiness Project

After a particularly rough year which was spent in dark places for a vast majority of it, I made a pretty huge decision on March 27 (gotta love journaling and being able to track yourself to the date, huh?) to be happy. And to do anything it was going to take to be happy. Forget other people's expectations, forget perceptions that may cause noise in your clarity, forget it all and do whatever it takes to be happy. So I made a few major decisions:

1. I moved back to Minnesota.

2. I moved in with my long-time love, Ben, finally fully committing to this man who has been dealing with my ups and downs for over four years.

3. I stopped searching for "day jobs" and renewed my search for my job in my field.

4. I stopped asking people for their opinions.

I moved home April 28 as I had a show to begin at Renegade Theatre in Duluth and Ben found us a place in St. Louis Park, which we love. Then I started chasing happiness! Since then, I have booked some amazing gigs that last throughout the summer (Falsettos at Bryant Lake Bowl, Summer Theatre Director at Breck School, Directing a Make-a-Play initiative at Yellow Tree Theatre, Teaching dance at Escalate Dance, and Choreographing Miss Nelson is Missing at Stages Theatre Company) and THEN I got an amazing job offer which I accepted. I am the new Asst. Professor of Musical Theatre at St. Catherine's University in St. Paul. It's a brand new major, I'm getting in on the ground level of a department, get to be a part of curriculum development and I get freaking benefits! And Ben and I are really, really happy. Like a whole new world of it. Home feels so good. New York was never home.

But happiness is elusive. In May I drove home every weekend from Duluth and Suz gave me this book one of those weekends--before all those gigs were booked and the dream job come to fruition. And I read it--http://www.happiness-project.com/--and I loved it. It made me think.

So first you make some commandments--I've decided mine look like this:

1. There is only love.

2. Words have consequences.

3. Don't be paralyzed; be productive.

4. You are bigger than your past.

5. You chose this.

6. Other people's opinions are none of my business.

7. I have enough.

8. Screw Rent--Live for more than today...money and health require it.

9. Be an artist and a scholar everyday.

10. Food doesn't fill you; only love does.

I'm going to try and live with these a bit and see where to go from there!