Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Lots of people, actually.
Well I am currently defying the time old rumor. Yeah okay, so I may not be very old. I’m 24, which to every person older to me, calling myself old would be an absolutely laughable statement. Compared to 6 year old me, or 15 year old me, I feel old though!
It has been a long while since I picked up a new hobby, let alone passion. Not since high school have I really been interested in learning a knew skill like the one I am attempting to learn now. You just kind of get comfortable, comfortable with the usual routine, and that comfort is a challenge to break out of.
I tended to be the kid that gave up on “hobbys” that didn’t come naturally to me. Luckily, I picked up some neat things fairly quickly. Cheerleading, snowboarding, and Kung fu was my trio of passions throughout my life and in my old age, I hardly even do but one of them semi-regularly.
Travel, however, has been a deep hidden passion that I haven’t been able to execute on until my old age, ironically enough. So here I am, living out my passion, traveling the world with my boyfriend and adventuring into the unknown. After a series of complicated events, we have settled down for a few months in a particularly lovely northern Thailand town we stumbled into called Pai.
Our hostel hosts a community of fire dancers+spinners who use props that are literally on freaking fire as they spin and dance and do crazy tricks.
I took several workshops, and even though I am not very naturally skilled, and the childhood me would have ditched the hobby several attempts ago, I am going to give it the good ol’e college try.
Watching them spin is hypnotizing, fascinating, and the thing that makes us crazy people go “I wanna do that!”.
For the first time in forever, I actually feel drawn to learn a new skill, a new “passion”, if you will. I feel excitement, I find myself dreaming about learning. I’m imagining myself in the fire show, wowing all the audience with my daring tricks, keeping them in suspense with slight hope that I catch myself on fire (which does happen, occasionally haha).
Maybe in a few months, you all will get to read a new blog post about my amazing fire spinning escapades and how I have improved. Since it has been so long since I attempted a new skill like this, uneasy feelings and nervousness chatters away in the back of my mind, trying to convince me that “I can’t do this” or often the old “you’ll kill yourself if you keep doing this”.
Maybe that last one comes only to fire spinners, and maybe seriel parachuters (my best guess at their professional title). But you get the picture. The self preservation voices get real loud.
Strangely enough, that is appealing. As you see, in my ripe old age of 24, I don’t participate in so many “daring” and “adrenaline” -ey things anymore. My teenage years were all over the place.
To wrap up, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? I will be doing my best, giving it my all, and hopefully will be spinning fire soon.
Ah, just thinking about it makes me feel excited! Screw all those other “passions” I believed I could get into but ditched, like the guitar or dream catcher weaving. So, raise your glass of coffee, wine, or whatever you are injesting at this current moment for a cheers to new passions and hobbies! Cheers to finding new unique things that make you happy, no matter what anyone else thinks!
Cheers!
-Kayla
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