Friday, December 3, 2010

What Do You Mean, Focus???

OK, so sight unseen I decided I was gonna do roller derby, whatever it was.

I had never in my life had such a reaction to an idea. I had never felt... passionate about anything before. Could this be what that felt like?

Sad, but true: at 22 I had nothing I was particularly good at. Though there was plenty I was doing!

Here's a fun little side story:

You know the actress Denise Richards? Well, her Dad (Irv) used to own a coffee shop in Oceanside where I worked off and on for almost 4 years. I don't know Denise, but I learned a lot of great lessons from her Dad. 

One of them was on a word totally foreign to me: focus.


One day he was asking me what my ambitions were.

I rattled off a list of things about travel and writing and learning Spanish and going to film school and barber school and carpentry and auto mechanics and...

He pretty much stopped me mid-manic rattling and said, "Bonnie, if you want to be good at anything you have to focus on just one thing for a while."

Good lesson! In theory.

However, I was already in college, taking Spanish and auto shop classes. I was also in barber school and taking a correspondence course in literary writing, at the time.

But... I was also just coming out of depression, exhausted all the time, late for everything and ps: addicted to pills, trying to have enough energy to keep up with everything.

 Yep, that's in my past. You think those scars got on my face by chance?

 They're a daily reminder of what happens when you live like a human doing instead of a human being.

Anywho, maybe Irv was on to something. Maybe just focus on one thing for a while. Maybe roller derby would be that thing?

I wish I could tell you my first practice was as magical as all the events that lead up to it... but truth be told, I wasn't so sure...

Had a rad day today! Here's my gift to you:

Most amazing break dancer ever.

And don't forget about this little guy!

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