Pursuing Your Dreams After Motherhood
As dancers go there really aren't many that can boast a resume like Fatima Robinson. She has not only worked with choreographing music videos, commercials, and movies, but also been the creative director behind award shows, and TV shows. This is still scratching the surface of her resume.
One of her newer projects being the music director in NBC's upcoming holiday production "The Wiz Live!" scheduled to air on December 3. How I came to know of Fatima was when I watched an Aaliyah documentary some time after her death. Fatima was actually the choreographer behind the video Rock The Boat but had chosen to stay behind and catch a later flight back to the U.S.
Fatima is a dancers who got discovered simply by doing what she loved most, dance. In an interview (attached below) she tells of how she would go to clubs and dance. She refers to the club as her classroom. It's in the club where she got discovered by John Singleton and cast as an extra in his directorial film debut, Boyz in the Hood. Singleton then later called on Fatima again when he was directing Michael Jackson's Remember the Time video, and asked Fatima to do the choreography. The rest as they say, is history.
Fatima made the conscious decision to keep working though it involved extensive travel after becoming a mother because it was her passion. She concluded that in order to be a good mom, she needs to be happy, and not pleasing society according to their expectations of what is acceptable. Her son accompanied her on her travels though as she says he's had a passport since he was 5 months. What's right for somebody else may not be not be right for you, so you can't base your life's decision on the opinions of others. Pursuing your dream, regardless of what it may be, is a personal journey. There's a quote that says
“You can’t expect people to understand your grind when God didn’t give them your vision.”
Only you know what you've envisioned for yourself, what your life could be like, and to a certain degree it's an act of obedience to that vision that God gave you. Having been given the vision however doesn't imply its fruition will be handed to you on a silver platter. Many times you have to claw your way through, but God's grace will be evident as He guides you on your journey.
Fatima concludes her interview by highlighting the point of doing things in its proper time, that that is when things come to fruition. So you may not have embarked on your dream career when you were 18, that doesn't mean it's not how God intended or designed it. Never live with regrets, because everything you've been through has made you who you are today. And who you are today is one who'll set sail on this new journey to happiness, and nail it.
Do you think parents should put their dreams on hold in favour of the more traditional approach to parenting? Comment below.
Be blessed!