An Approach to Dueling Careers: Annie on Work/Life/Passion Balance Part 2

Now for Annie Part 2! If you missed out on Part 1, go back and check it out! For now, check out more about what Annie prioritizes, and her hunger to learn more, try new things and who she’ll probably be when she grows up…

I heavily prioritize sleep. Sleep deprivation is a reliable migraine trigger for me, so that’s a pretty strong motivation to get 7-8 hours regularly. But also… I mean, we all are just better with sufficient sleep. Some people might prioritize food, or exercise, or entertainment, or alone time, or social time, but for me, it’s sleep, hands down. And yes, sometimes that means car naps. More often than I’d like to admit.

I guess I also really value balance in another sense — balance of interests/passions/hobbies/whatever. “Well-roundedness”. It has always been important to me to do a lot of things. A lot of different things. So I tend to jump at a wide variety of things that may cross my path. I do my fair share of couch potato-ing with all the usual “prestige” TV shows (and some that are decidedly “unprestige”), I try to see a lot of theater and live music, I’m always up for a new crafting project (two winters ago I watched every episode of both Buffy and Angel while knitting a collection of scarves and hats), my fiance and I are big gamers (both table top- and video-), and in the last couple years I’ve gotten really into weightlifting (literally the only athletic endeavor I’ve ever enjoyed). Even within my “fields” I try to be open to newness and variety. I wrote my first play last year, and I’m basically the de-facto Athletic Director at my small school, which is just hysterical considering the fact that I’ve never played sports in my life. Literally, never.

But this is just such a hard question, and so dependent on variables. My Work/Life/Balance needs are different than those of a single person, or a stay-at-home parent, or a high-level executive, or a doctor, or a grad student, or a person working 3 part-time minimum wage jobs… and for everything I am successful at, there’s something that I totally suck at (car cleanliness, I’m looking at you). I think part of the balancing act is realizing that nobody can do it perfectly, and that if you want to stay in and play Dragon Age: Inquisition all weekend, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Yoga, book clubs, and kale juice isn’t right for everyone.

When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?
I actually do not recall ever having an an answer to the “what do you want to be when you grow up” question. I do remember thinking from an early age that the two most important things a person can do with their life are to be a parent and to be a teacher. (Yeah, I was that kid.)

Now that you’re pretty much a grown-up, what do you think you’re going to be when you grow up?
I’m going to be an interesting, fun, caring, passionate, generous, weird, visionary person when I grow up.

I’m going to be Oliver Sacks when I grow up.

(Only half kidding.)

Thanks for chatting! Where can folks find more info about you?
I’m sporadically on Twitter @anniepaladino
You can find info about my artistic work at www.anniepaladino.com
And Akropolis Performance Lab is online at www.akropolisperformancelab.com