Congratulations, it's a blog!!

Hello world!

I've recently found that I have a lot more time on my hands so I thought I would start a blog. A little about me, I'm a ballet dancer, come from a family of five, love Pinterest just a little too much, and am generally happy and grateful for the life I'm living with one small caveat - I'm poor as shit. Like, my student loan repayment plan is based on my current income and my payments are $0.

Back in high school, we took these online tests to figure out what type of jobs we could strive for based on our answers to a series of tedious questions (do you like the outdoors? do you like to paint? are you a dog or a cat person?). Upon seeing the results (English teacher or garbage man... really?) I started wondering if I would even have a career or if I would just end up a house wife in the suburbs somewhere with 2.5 kids and a dog. What was I really interested in? My mind kept moving back to ballet. I'd taken it since I was three years old, and when my mom made me choose between that, girl scouts, and soccer years earlier, I'd chosen ballet, so I thought, "let's give this a try."

My senior year I auditioned for companies and colleges alike. With trepidation, hope and adrenaline flowing through my veins I walked into studio after studio wishing that this was it. I had dreams that as soon as I walked in the door the audition officials would say, "STOP! We don't even need to see you dance. We want you!" Hello rude awakening. No company audition kept me after the first cut (one even sent me home after ten minutes), and my college of choice rejected me saying there just wasn't room for a ballet dancer. But within all this rejection I'd discovered a world beyond my small studio. I saw what was possible with hard work and training, and how much hard work it was going to take. Surprisingly, instead of shying away and going to community college to "figure it out" I found myself determined to see this through and that's when it happened. That's when I actually formed a concrete dream to be a ballet dancer performing for large audiences around the world. Not at 3, but 19. I wanted this, more than anything, so for the next year I worked harder than I ever had before to get into my college of choice because I knew without that training, I'd never make it.

Fast forward five years to the present, June 2013. Degree completed, injuries healed, and first job with a true professional company secured, I'm realizing a few things:

1. The term "starving artist" is not some romantic idea of purposefully living in squalor and suffering for your art. It's applied to people who are a product of a society that doesn't appreciate art as much as they appreciate football (bitter? Noooooo..... not at all *coughbullshitcough*)
2. They say that loving what you do is more important than making money. That's all fine and dandy until rent is due. And loan payments. And gas. And maybe eating. I know I'm a ballet dancer but I'm far from anorexic (bacon anyone?)
3. What the hell am I supposed to do with a dance degree? It's not even dance pedagogy, it's a degree in performing arts, specialized in ballet. No minor in business, or teaching, or English so what am I supposed to do after my dance career? I could teach at a studio or go back to school to get my masters so I could teach at a college but not much else...
4. Having no homework is awesome. :D (it's not ALL bad) 

These points bring me to the purpose of this blog. My struggles with keeping to a VERY strict budget, trying things I found on Pinterest in an effort to save money such as growing lettuce from your romaine butts bought from the grocery store (totally works btw), scoring awesome deals on clothes and such so I don't look as poor as I am.... all will be on here for your enjoyment. 

I'll end this post with a nugget of wisdom, something I've discovered over the past couple years that has helped me keep my sanity through the number crunching, job hunting, apartment moving craziness. Laughter conquers all. Yes laughter. Whether it's with friends whom you've known forever or just met, your significant other who knows what your thinking before you say it, your family, or those lovely memes that everyone shares because they're just so true, laughter makes everything better. So laugh my friends, laugh as you write that rent check because you can always make more, laugh because that cat just ran head first into a window, laugh because your friend just let one rip accidentally because you were already laughing so hard. Just laugh.