Choice, Chance, Change

Choices, Chances, Changes

You must make a Choice to take a Chance, or your life will never Change.

I Am Not One for Change

Every day I wake the kids for school (actually drag them out of bed) and get them started with breakfast and homeschool... do laundry and whatever else needs to be done in the house (there's ALWAYS something)... 3:00, hurry out the door and head to dance... drive an hour to get there... sit and wait 5 hours till classes are done and head home... another hour drive... get home between 10:30 & 11:00... wind the kids down and get them off to bed... then do it all over again the next day.

Sounds fun!? I do what needs to be done, but truthfully I'm exhausted!

“Ashlyn's talent is our 'why' in this equation. In turn, I have turned into Robot Mom… just chugging along.”

After our tumultuous transfer from Mobile to Elizabeth City, we realized the closest dance studio was an hour away. It is what it is, and we did what needed to be done. Meanwhile, lack of sleep, fast food, and a body breaking down after Plantar Fasciitis and physical therapy… I was tired in every possible way......

Rediscovering This Post Nearly 10 Years Later

I wrote those words in 2015. Seems like forever ago! Then life happened, and this blog—like so many other things—got left behind.

Recently, I reopened this post, and reading it again felt like stepping back in time. So much has changed—but the core of it? The why? That stayed the same.

Back then, I was showing up so Ashlyn could chase her dream. And now, all these years later, I get to look back and see how far that dream has taken her—and us.

The Detour That Was Actually Direction

Ashlyn had to step away from dance for two years in high school. She tried a local studio, but it turned out to be a bad fit—they even called her in to teach when instructors were out. She was just a teenager, trying to train, and it was clear she needed more. She left the studio and found a local theater group, Center Players, where she could keep performing and stay connected to movement while she auditioned for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA)

She got waitlisted the first year.

It crushed her… but it turned out to be the best thing that could’ve happened.

“What felt like rejection was actually redirection.”

In her artistic statement, she had said she hoped to continue at UNCSA for college. If she had attended for two years of high school, she would’ve had to repeat a year to meet diploma requirements of three years of undergrad. Getting waitlisted allowed her to join for just her senior year, then seamlessly transition into their college program and complete the full three-year track needed for graduation.

Dreams Rewritten—But Not Lost

Ashlyn went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from UNCSA with a Contemporary Dance degree—in the middle of COVID.

She taught wherever she could when she came home. She danced with a company in Norfolk, taught at a few studios and a Governor’s School in Virginia, and eventually felt the call to go even further.

NYU had extended their master’s program deadline. At the last minute, she applied.

A week later, she was accepted.

Today, she lives in New York City, where she just graduated in May with her Master’s from NYU. She’s also earning her ABT teaching certification, and for her internship, she’s working at none other than the world-renowned Martha Graham School—her absolute dream job.

The same girl who once feared her dream had slipped away is now living it—boldly, fully, beautifully.

The Full Circle I Didn’t See Coming

And me? I’m here, finishing a blog post I started when I was barely keeping my head above water—writing through exhaustion and love.

“Turns out… we both kept going.”

We made a Choice.
We took a Chance.
And life—in all its mess and magic—Changed.

This isn’t just the ending of an old post. It’s a reminder that no effort, no long drive, no tear or tired night is ever wasted.

To You, Reading This

Maybe you're in the thick of it now. Maybe your dreams feel delayed or detoured. Maybe you're tired.

I see you.

Hold on to your "why." Keep showing up. Because one day, you might look back and realize—the very thing that almost made you quit was actually shaping your story in the most beautiful way.