mara palma
Note to Self
November 22
on impatience and patience
Dear Self,
How do you know when it’s time to give up on a dream?
Do you always hit this point before something changes for your path?
Am I right around the corner from something I can’t even see?
I was talking with a friend about how impatient I was about wanting success YESTERDAY. She was talking about a colleague of hers who had achieved some success… ten years after they both went to school. I’m so so tempted to give in to the scarcity of it all. That because I haven’t gotten to a certain level (*cough* Broadway) I’m doomed to never make an impact or be successful in anything I do. (Thankfully my meditation game and therapy game has elevated in the past year and I already know the “never make an impact” isn’t true. Maybe that’s another post.)
On a podcast episode of The Long and the Short of It, one of my faves, I heard Jen Waldman talk about how she faces fear by deepening her belief. Her belief in herself, her artistry, her clients… It struck me.
If I had nothing else except my belief in myself, what might I possibly accomplish?
It doesn’t matter that there aren’t a million offers flooding my way (yet). It doesn’t matter that I feel like my biological clock is ticking because I know what I offer to the world. It doesn’t matter that I don’t achieve someone’s definition of success, because I would have created my own.
So perhaps like Elizabeth Gilbert says in Big Magic, everyone’s success–like the genius, the ideas that are floating around looking for their host–is exactly that. Theirs. Which means by extension that mine is also there.
Let me go dig around for some of that belief in my Self. It’ll be a worthy excavation.
Love,
Your Self
about mara
Mara Palma is a freelance teaching artist who helps young people develop their leadership skills through creative expression and imagination as they gain the self-confidence to share their Stand-Out Stories with their communities.
Mara graduated from Wellesley College with a dual degree in Theatre Studies and Political Science, where she contributed a piece to The Wellesley Globalist. She has taught students and educators through in-person and online workshops with the AVPA Theatre at Culver City High School, Center Theatre Group in LA, the Seattle Theater Group, and Campbell Hall’s Creative Arts Academy. Her proudest accomplishments include working to launch after-school musical theater clubs in Seattle and Los Angeles through the Disney Musicals in Schools program. Mara’s work as a performer has been featured in The Seattle Times, Broadway World Seattle, Drama in the Hood, and NWAsian Weekly.
She is passionate to discuss how the arts should be accessible to more BIPOC youth and the performing arts’ capacity to build personal growth, leadership, and teamwork for our young future world leaders.