I came upon this just aimlessly looking for some help online and I can so relate to this. Broken dreams. I was a dancer. I lived in Paris. I had a beautiful little apartment in the most beautiful city on earth and every night I would go on stage in feathers and diamonds and people clapped. I was living the dream. Then at 34 I got fired. It’s all over. I lost my job, my home, my lifestyle, my independence, my pride and joy and purpose and identity… It’s too much. I don’t know how to cope. I had some counselling. Different people. They all focus very much on getting me retrained for something and back out in some job and I understand what they’re trying to do but nobody is addressing this huge loss I feel. People keep telling me it’s not so bad, it’s just a job, nobody died but actually I died. Me. That person that I was doesn’t exist anymore. And I can’t ever go back. At 34 getting back into a dance job is just unrealistic. Everything I worked for all my life, my dream, my passion-it’s over. People keep telling me I should be grateful, I had 10 years of a wonderful career but I can’t feel grateful. It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t finished. And how do you cope with knowing that 10 years is all you’ll ever get in life? How do you keep on living? I don’t know. It’s a really good advice and it’s really important to find out what makes you happy in life. But what if you know it, if you found it but you can’t ever get it back?
I’m sorry littlebean, I didn’t meet to grab attention from you, I just read your post and all this came pouring out. Sorry