I’ve been thinking of a way to say what I wanted to say without sounding jaded, cynical or overly sensitive. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll just put it out there and fix it later.

When did it become acceptable to be rude and not think before speaking? Let me back up. I rarely talk about my day job. Mostly because what I do is just that – a day job. A means to an end and nothing more. But, the other day a person came in and said to me, “what are doing here in LA?” I replied, “I’m an Actor.” A small chuckle came out of his mouth before he stated, ” are you really an actor or are you one of those people that just say they’re an actor?” In that spilt second I wanted to jump out of my skin and deck this guy. A guy whom I have had very limited interactions with, but yet felt comfortable enough to question what I’ve chosen to do with my life. And then I thought, why am I letting this guy get to me? He doesn’t know my life. He has no idea what my resume looks like or what I’m currently working on. Could it be that I thought he was correct? That I wasn’t really an actor because I still held on to my day job? And by the way, this all happened in my brain within a three second pause. He was still waiting for my response. Yup, my thoughts worked that fast. Let me pause this story and get back to it after I add the next strange interaction.

I was sitting at dinner with a group of non-actors. Some were friends and some the friends of those friends. One girl in the group stated, “I hear you’re an actor.” And again, proudly I stated, “Yes, I am!” And without hesitation she blurted out and I quote, ” Have you even done anything?” Now, I know that her intentions were probably in the right place and she meant well, right? She just wanted to include me in the circle of conversation, right? Well, in that brief moment where I had to decide whether or not to bitch-slap her I wasn’t too sure. In this same moment, I had to decide whether to start listing my credits and hoping she approved or sit back. Once again, I found myself taken aback by a persons rudeness. And yet again, a person I had just met.

I walked away from both of those encounters wondering about the person who puts themselves through nursing school and because they have a side job – are they still considered a nurse? The person that is a teacher by day, but because of their low salary has to take a part time job at night or the weekend…are they teachers or just pretending? Or anyone else who has to take a second job to reach/support their dreams…you get the point.

Fortunately, in both situations I simply stated YES and left it at that. If these individuals were truly interested in my career and wanted to know about me, I felt they could “google me bitch!” I’m pretty confident in what I’m doing with my life and the path I’ve chosen. But, I won’t lie, for those split seconds I did want to

I go back home to Chicago or Miami and my friends and family still remember the small part on a show where I said two-lines! And to them, it’s magical. As it is to me. Their next question is have you met Denzel yet? Or have you slept with Halle?!Guess, the point of this rant is just an observation. It reminded me that we have to be pretty strong and crazy to be out here pursing this career. And I’m both. I read a statistic a while back that 90% of people do not pursue their dreams. Hmp. Happy to be out here pursuing my dream. And happy to report that YES, I’m an ACTOR! And YES, I’ve even done stuff. GOOD STUFF!