Reality-Show Perspective

I've been watching some performing-arts reality shows recently. I caught a few episodes of Step It Up and Dance. I watched the first episode of the Legally Blonde casting show (the title of which is too long for me to bother looking up or typing out). And I watched the audition episodes of So You Think You Can Dance.

On every show there is the professional. Been there, done that. They know what it is to work hard. They know what success feels like. And they also know what rejection feels like. So they're less likely to blow the reality-show rejection out of proportion.

And then there are the "passionate" amateurs. I put the word in quotes because they pretend a passion they probably don't really feel. They're melodramatic. Or maybe they're just young. Lord knows I've been there, too: devastated by a rejection and feeling things are over. But watching from an outside perspective, obviously, I'm not as emotionally involved as if I were competing.

I want to give these people a knock upside the head. If you really want to sing, being rejected from American Idol does not mean your singing dreams are over. So You Think You Can Dance is not the only way to make it as a dancer. It's not even the best way. If you give up after one rejection, either you're a fool or you didn't want it that much to begin with.

Instead of yelling at my TV, I file this wisdom away in my own brain. I've needed it before, and I'm sure I'll need it again. Keep trying. Pursue other venues and opportunities. No single rejection means the defeat of an entire career.

A 19-year-old on So You Think You Can Dance said she'd give up if she were rejected. The judges found the attitude troubling. She was probably just being overly emotional and not really so defeatist. Still, the point was powerful. If you give up so easily, maybe you don't deserve if after all — even if you're talented. If you give up so easily, it must not mean that much to you.

How much do my dreams mean to me?

I want to act (and sing) so much that I couldn't ever imagine stop dreaming it and trying for it. Maybe my goals will change form, becoming larger or smaller as circumstances dictate. But I will never stop working for what I want. I will never let rejections kill my dream.