Some opportunities come at you out of the blue.
I saw an ad on social media on Thursday for a theatre troupe/school looking for part-time work, and I tentatively shot them an email. I didn't really consider it, but I knew them, and since theatre is something I've always resonated with, I figured can't hurt to ask. Friday night, I got a call saying would you like to go to a children's festival just outside of town this weekend?
I hesitated. I had no idea what kind of work we were even talking about. Then, after a moment, I was like fuck yeah.
I love theatre. I love kids. And despite my antisocial inclinations, people keep telling me I'm good with people. I'm starting to believe them. It's freaky.
Anyway, next morning I set out on the long journey to the festival spot (90 mins or so). As something of a night owl, waking up early enough was a hassle. I could choose to be morose about it. Or I could enjoy the morning sunlight that I normally sleep through. I could take the chance to finish my book. I could meditate, in the silence of the unknown road, on the things that make me unsure in my life. It was a fantastically fruitful 90 minutes, let me tell you.
The festival itself, hosted inside a beautiful park/island bordering a big lake, is a huge event with three separate stages and a looot of vendors/booths. At first, I felt a little bit daunted, not to mention the stress of being cast in a pool of people I didn't know (which introvert readers might resonate with). Upon minutes of arrival, after a slew of introductions and rapid heartbeat, the head of the troupe had instructed me to put on a costume (bumbling, quirky ant), and head for the parade.
Within about five more minutes - basically all internally screaming "wtf have we signed up for" - I was having a whale of a time, jumping around, and dancing with other dressed-up animators. I'm a big fan of dancing, though overall preferred the outfit I got the following day:
With big clumsy feet, the Tree didn't so much as dance as wobble about menacingly, frightening or teasing little ones. A kid did want to know how come trees have painted toenails, and reminded me that as wise as I sometimes feel, there's still so many questions I have no answer to.
The festival wasn't all costumes and frolicking. And thank goodness, since Saturday was some 35C. There was also plenty of games - we also ran a booth on recycling, so there was a lot of chatting to children and parents alike. A lot of learning.
Depending how you look at things, things can be a job or an immense opportunity to learn (or when you're lucky, both). I enjoyed interacting with and observing different types of parenting. Some kids were wonderfully imaginative - I had one boy who insisted on pantomiming the way each item got broken before trashing it into the right bin - while others were quite fearful not to do wrong. It's an exercise, correcting a small child without instilling in them a sentiment that they've "done wrong", something a lot of parents seemed quite oblivious to. I was stressed by the parents frantically screeching "that's PLASTIC!", let alone the kids trying to pick the right bin.
We also helped with assembling and disassembling sets, giving out flyers, inflating balloons, and all the stuff such a festival typically implies.
During the second day, we had a tremendous storm in the middle of the day, which meant hiding inside the booth for a couple of hours with about ten other people, assembling sandwiches and kidding about. It meant exploring the other booths in-between heavier bouts of downpour and playing with soap bubbles.
It was exhausting, but delectable both at once. And no doubt, a lot of it was the friendliness and openeness of the people I worked with. It was the tremendous luck, as I've said before, of finding a way to earn while doing something I resonate with and having a blast.
It also came at an interesting point for me, where I wonder about my choices in life, and my way of living more broadly. To meet people who, like me, are walking untraditional paths, reminded me that you can figure it out as you go, at a time I needed reminding.
I went home both nights super tired - physically, it was a very demanding couple of days with little to no downtime and continuous social interaction (which can be quite tiring for an introvert) - but also delighted.
That I hadn't given my time and my energy in vain. That I'd worked on something worth doing. That sitting in the sun with people you resonate with can also be work.
I was just saying with another girl, how cool that you can be paid for being yourself - because these people left room for initiative, for taking charge over something you hadn't been instructed to do, but felt was worth doing to make everything better for the whole. It's not bad stuff.
I went these couple of days as an exercise, a test to see if this sort of thing might be something I would enjoy, which seemed a safe bet based on previous experience, but still not a given. I'm so grateful it played out in my favor.
