Walk Through Doors

You May Find What You Didn't Know You Were Missing

When I arrived in London 6 months ago, I knew I had to have a “Say Yes” mentality. This was going to be hard for me as I had really worked hard to cultivate my “Say No” self. I had reached a point in my life - and in my time in Los Angeles - where I had a clear idea of what would make me happy to do and what would fill me with the type of resentment that would curse someone’s family for generations. I used to call it my “Crystal Ball.”

“I’m looking into my crystal ball and seeing myself driving home from here at 10pm, angry that I wasted my evening…” I would say.

More often than not I was right, and I have plenty of memories of suffering through things I thought I would “just try” to prove it.

Bur arriving in a new city, in another country, and spending the majority of the time away from my husband, was going to necessitate an attitude shift. I told myself I was ready for it and in some sense I had prepared myself for it my entire professional life. You don’t create a career in the entertainment industry without taking hundreds of at-bats, whether it’s general meetings or open mics. It’s a business built on networking, and that skill set would serve me well here. I reached out to everyone I knew who had friends and contacts in the UK and asked them to set me up on what was the equivalent of blind dates. I was super lucky that they not only did, but that their friends were so willing to meet with this total stranger from the US.

“You’re not going to like everything,” I told myself. “It won’t all be for you.” I knew the important thing was to try, to find the things I did like and not let the things I didn’t dictate my willingness to “Say Yes” in the future.

Life is about walking through doors. “They’re can’t all be winners, Kid,” as they say in Bad Santa. You hope there are more fun times waiting for you on the other side than regrets. And sometimes…sometimes when we walk through a door magic happens. We meet that friend, that lover, that future work collaborator.