One of my closest friends has, for a long time, harbored a dream of being a dancer. Her parents have some problems with it though, that extend into religious matters. In fact, my friend herself too says that she doesn’t know if she would ever be able to take the final leap into professional dancing due to her religious upbringing.
Her parents don’t allow her to take lessons, but she has strong natural talent.
She’s ready to put in the hard work that will take her places, but she knows she will never be able to take the final step and go professional, and she has accepted that this will only ever be a dream.
Despite the fact that she recognizes that she probably would not be able to do that, be it due to familial pressure or her own religious reservations, it still weighs heavily on her that she doesn’t even have the chance to ever make that choice. Natural talent alone is not enough to go on nowadays.
And although it’s a bitter pill to swallow, and she has shed many tears over it, she’s come to accept nothing will ever really happen.
I have always done my best to lift her mood when everything starts seeming pointless to her, but today while we were talking, she told me it was useless for me to tell her that things would work out and she’d find a way, because for her, religion trumps all. She asked me to just tell her how she could find peace with her own decision.
I was stumped for an answer. Is there really a way she could find peace with her decision? She loves dance more than she loves her religion, but prioritizes religion more, if that makes sense. So she has her personal priorities straight. Is there any way she can learn to live in peace with that and not constantly feel pointless?

Topics: friends, dreams, advice, self-help, self awareness, passion, self image