I always wanted to be famous.  It has been the one consistent dream I have had since childhood.  I watched movies, television shows, musical theater and ballet performances as if I were the one saying the lines, doing the 32 fouette turns, or belting out a classic show tune.  I couldn’t wait for it to happen!  The song Fame sums it up perfectly for me- “I want to live forever, I want to learn how to fly high. Remember my name.”  I could feel it in my bones, this was going to happen for me.  I trained hard as a dancer, participated in my high school musicals and eventually got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at York University.  On the day of the dance department’s graduation party, I auditioned for the Toronto Argonaut Sundancers (Canadian Football League) and got the job!  I thought I had made it!  I had spent the last four years of my life studying modern dance and ballet predominantly and now here I was going to kick up my legs and cheer for a football team.  It didn’t pay much but it was my first taste of being a celebrity.  We had our picture in the paper, we did public appearances and nothing could compare to the feeling of running onto the field at the Sky Dome to dance at a game.  I was so very content with my life until one day at a charity event I was gushing about how great this job was and a fellow dancer looked at me and said “Yeah, this okay but I want a real dance job.”  My eyes were opened.  She showed me a bigger picture with just a few words.  You know what?  I want a real dance job too!  So off I went to pursue a bigger job in the dance world.  I quickly landed a job working on the island of St. Maarten, dancing in a show called “An Evening at La Cage”.  From there I went on to dance on cruise ships, theme parks and tours.  I was very happy, but I never became famous. In 2001, my husband at the time and I decided that we needed a more settled, stable life and we moved from New York City to Franklin, Tennessee (his home town).  I was to take a job as a dance instructor at his mother’s dance studio, Ann Carroll School of Dance and he was to work with a production company based out of Nashville.  I will never forget the first day that I worked at the dance studio and I was introduced as Miss Laura.  The name felt important, I felt important.  After the first hour of being Miss Laura, I knew I had found my home.  I knew that this was who I had always wanted to be.  When I walk into the studio and I hear my students shout out “Miss Laura!”  “Hi Miss Laura!” “Hey Miss Laura!”, I am filled with joy.  It is the sweetest sound I have ever and will ever hear.  Every day that I receive that greeting I am aware that this is my claim to fame.  That I am famous to the children I teach.  To them I am the celebrity I always dreamed I would be and I am overwhelmed with God’s response to my dreams.  We dream unabashedly and hope they will come true.  The way in which they come to fruition is not for us to decide.  And today and every day I am glad for that.