Follow The Yellow Brick Road

I recently found an old friend on Facebook and Blogger. Her name is Alison Walla. I met Alison sometime around my senior year of high school. She is a few years older than I am, so at the time of our introduction she had just moved back to Kansas City after having spent several years in New York pursuing her Broadway dreams. I wish now that I would have asked her how she felt about coming home. I don't know how long she'd tried - I know the dream didn't come true the first time around. And looking back, I don't know why she came home...I doubt it was to give up. I never got the idea from Alison that she felt defeated.

My point is, the other day I was going through some old keepsakes.

Sidenote: I am "one of those kind of people." The kind that keeps everything 'cause it means something. My friend Julianna did not understand why I'd kept a letter she'd written me 6 years earlier. I'm sure she'd said something nice about me in the letter and I thought maybe I'd need to read it again someday for an emotional boost. Julianna says I should read letters and throw them away.

So, I'm going through my old keepsakes and I come across a Playbill from the Broadway production of "Into The Woods."

The summer that Alison and I became really close (2002 if you were wondering) she got a call from her agent to come try out for a part in "Into The Woods," opposite Vanessa Williams. She lived in Kansas City at this point. Not New York, mind you. I remember when she flew out to audition. I remember when she got the call back. And I remember when she flew back to New York to start her new job! And then she sent me a Playbill. And her name was in it. And I kept it. And I look at it now and then. What a good reminder for me and my dreams.

Alison also gave me a tiny little photo frame with the Bible verse, "You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride," to remind me who I am. I still have it. Another precious reminder.

I haven't seen Alison in years, but because we're friends on Facebook (and hopefully still friends in real life) I get to keep up with her. Now she's been in several Broadway shows and touring productions and TV shows, etc. Not that you have to have all that good stuff to be a success. But her dream did come true.

Doesn't that just make you feel good??

Ahhhh!!! I love it.

I think you get the point. Never give up. Good things happen whether they're what we thought they'd be or something completely different. There are blessings all over the place.

The end.

LJ

PS - Alison has her own blog. She is an amazing knitter (I'm jealous) and cook...and she has all sorts of great things so say. So check it out: http://www.lepetithibou.blogspot.com