messy-haired ballerina

the other day at work i was getting off and this other girl was getting ready to go on. we started talking about how she's a ballet dancer. i asked her if she danced with a company.

she was like, "no. i just dance at my school."

i told her i couldn't understand being a ballerina since you're 3 years old and not wanting to at least try and dance professionally. she launched into this explanation about why it's a terrible idea to reach for the stars. she was like, "well, first of all if you sleep your way into actually GETTING an audition someplace, and then say that against all odds you actually GET IN, you're gonna wind up dancing in the chorus for at least three years before you get any good parts. and you're gonna be dancing all day every day and you'll take coke and speed just to keep up and before you know it your teeth are falling out and you're just a total mess. nuh-uh, that's not for me! i don't even want to be around that kind of stuff. i can't HANDLE it."

i was like, "what wild after-school special have YOU been watching honey? not all ballerinas are toothless cokeheads."

but i guess she just liked having a story for being too lazy or scared or whatever to take things to the next level, for preferring instead to be a large fish in the small pond of her dance school. fucking wacky little 21 year-old. somebody needs to confiscate her VHS copy of "showgirls."