What a birthday!

Let me preface this by saying that I am still committed to what I said in my first post about this blog NOT being a glorified "Facebook" status posting. I try to keep things on task as much as possible. So, that said, I will continue.

My birthday was incredible. Since I've already mentioned Facebook, I will add it to this. I awoke to a plethora of "Happy Birthday" wishes from all over the globe, and these stayed in a steady hourly stream as the day continued.

Most of these people are people I have met throughout my career dating back to the days when I was a young dance student. To me, this is a testament of the importance of having people in our lives and the need to get to know as many of them on as possible on as deep a level as possible. When I leave this field, I will cease to be a "ballet company dancer." But, I will continue to be me. The memories I have made and the people who I have touched and who have come to mean so much to me will remain. These are the people who will represent what I built during my career (and my life so far of course.)

I truly am a lucky man, and I don't take a single person for granted. I feel honored and humbled that so many people cared to reach out and send me a greeting today. I see each person as a reminder that I have a new stage to move onto. I have something better than a paying audience in front of me. I have the ultimate of all audiences-an audience of friends who love and support me and want to see me succeed. This is a group of people who watches-if only on birthdays and wants to know that I am alive and well. This is enough reason to keep striving to "perform" my best in my life. I don't see these people as "fans"-I am not so vain. I see them as icons. They are people that I want to impress by living a loving and successful life. They are people who may have met me by seeing me on stage, but they care enough to see me step off of it to. I want to keep people like this in my life. Indeed I do live a charmed life.