When Life Gets Hard, Lean Into Your Passion

I did. And It Probably Saved My Life.

Janelle Schroy

Published in

Inspired to Learn

7 min readMar 28, 2024

FINDING MY PASSION

I started taking ballet at the age of three. Very quickly, I fell in love with dance, so I continued to pursue various forms of it throughout my life.

By the age of 12, I was dancing ballet on pointe, taking four classes per week, and performing in shows regularly. Putting on my tights and ballet shows and twisting my hair into a bun brought me so much joy. All throughout my childhood, I danced.

As a child, ballet was formative to my identity.

MY PASSION IN CRISIS

When I was 15, my dad walked out the door one morning. He left my family for good and never came back. It was pretty much hell for a few years after that.

I was in high school and perpetually dealing with my father’s issues. He was physically gone, but he called me often. He threatened many things on those phone calls, and his menacing messages could have destroyed me.

At one point, we instituted a restraining order to keep him at bay, and I even went into hiding for a while— just in case he tried to make good on his threats.

In all of that, I danced.

In crisis, my passion carried me through.

A PASSION AS HOPE

When my parents were divorcing, my father took my older brother to live with him across the country. My mom and I were left alone and bankrupt. We faced a stack of debt incurred by my father, no credit history for my mom, and we had no good way of earning money.

At the time, my mom was working a low paying job as a copy writer at a non-profit organization, and no one there there recognized her genius as a writer. She didn’t have a college degree, and that meant her options were limited.

[Later she earned her college degree, worked her way up to became an editorial director overseeing nine magazines, a best-selling novelist, inspirational speaker and writing coach. Now that’s some resilience!]

But at the time, we were dead broke. We needed money, and fast. I was 16, and I felt like I could and should help with our finances. So I decided to turn my passion for dance into a money-making venture.

In my crisis, my passion was my hope.

MY PASSION AS COURAGE

One good thing I inherited from my absentee father was a knack for entrepreneurship. Like him, I was fearless when it came to business. I was good with people, full of ideas, and courageous enough to take a risk.

My first business was an in-house bakery. As a 12 year old, I baked a dozen loaves of sourdough bread every day and sold them hot out of the oven to my neighbors. Each afternoon I came home with no bread and pocketful of money because, well — who doesn’t want freshly baked, warm bread delivered to their house right at dinnertime?

As an 8th grader, making $24 a day meant I was earning my my own cash to the tune of $120 per week.

So at 16, no one was surprising when I transformed the basement of our house into a legitamate dance studio. Why not, right? We needed money and the one thing I knew how to do was dance. Surely I could teach it too.

As an anxious teen, my passion was my courage.

A PASSION AS BUSINESS

I printed up some simple flyers and I posted them all over town. On them, I announced the opening of a new ballet studio!

The first day I opened my business, I had two full class of little girls who wanted to learn ballet from me. Somehow, their parents didn’t seem to mind that I was a 16 year old working out of my family’s basement.

And the business grew. Soon I was was dancing 6 or more hours a day. I went to high school just like any other kid, but by 3:30pm, I was in the studio teaching dance.

In my junior and senior years of high school, my basement was full of students every week day. I made about $3,000 per month to help with our family expenses and fund my further dance training.

In the evenings, I went to my own dance classes at a different studio. Late into the night, I did my homework and prepared for school the next day.

As a teenager in need of money, my passion was my job.

PASSION AS THERAPY

While my parents were divorcing, my father was threatening, and I was fighting off fear, I danced. When I had boyfriend troubles or conflicts with friends, I danced. When I was sad or confused, I danced.

I made it through all that emotion and hardship by working it through physically. Dancing gave me an outlet, a way to process my worries or pain. I focused all that emotion into something that made me healthier, stronger.

For a long time, my passion was about having a physical outlet. Through dance, I was able to work through all sorts of challenges and obstacles in my life.

As a young adult, my passion was my therapy.

PASSION AS COMMUNITY

When I went away to California for college, I picked up modern dance, African dance, jazz dance and hip-hop dance. I was too structured of a dancer to do very well with pop-and-lock and I didn’t enjoy the restrictions of step dance.

But hip-hop meant freedom, creativity and fun. It was a whole new world, and it was thrilling.

I was studying a degree in Political Science / International Relations, but I also took every dance class my college offered.

As I continued to hone my new found art form, I began dancing on a touring hip-hop dance team, then I joined as a back-up dancer in concerts for a major hip-hop artist. Just for fun, I accepted an invitation to dance in a music video for Faith Hill.

But it was never about the money. At that point, it was about community.

I worked incredibly hard in college. I maximized my credit hours, and worked multiple part time jobs to pay tuition. One of these jobs was acting in movies and TV shows in Hollywood. In southern California, and it is perfectly normal to be acting as a side hustle.

Unfortunately, Hollywood was a finicky place, and the competition was fierce. This meant people didn’t connect easily with one another after a film or show was completed.

But by joining up with other dancers in LA, it was easy to find and nurture friendships.

As a young adult, my passion was my community.

PASSION AS FAMILY LEARNING

As an adult, my husband and I lived in South Africa for ten years, and its where my four daughters were born. Now I travel the world with my family for the purpose of their education.

Now my kids enjoy this passion with me. Together as a family, we’ve explored all sorts of dance forms across 43 countries.

We’ve studied ballet in France, tango in Argentina, flamenco in Spain, céilí in Ireland, sirtaki dance in Greece, barong dance in Bali, khon dance in Thailand, Israeli dance in Israel. And the list goes on.

In pursing my passion through pain, and joy, and struggle, I receive a great reward: I don’t just survive. I thrive.

As a mom, my passion is part of my family memories.

WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?

When life gets hard, here’s my advice: lean into your passion, whatever that is for you.

Maybe it’s dance, maybe it’s playing sport, maybe it’s practicing and instrument, maybe it’s cooking.

Don’t sit around feeling sad or depressed. Whatever your passion is, lean into it. Let it be an outlet. If you don’t have a passion, try lots of different things until you DO find one.

Here’s a list of passions you might have. Do any of these resonate with you? How can you lean into your passion when life is hard (and when it’s not!)