Have you ever tried to do something, even though the chance that you would succeed was so slim, it was practically impossible?

That’s me right now.

The United States Dance Championships, a.k.a. USDC, a.k.a. Nationals (for the NDCA circuit), is in less than two months. Entries are due in three weeks. Some of you may recall that I had planned on competing at USDC two years ago. That didn’t work out so well. For those of you who are newer to the blog (welcome!), you can read about the whole aftermath in this PDF download (just click the image below). If nothing else, at least I got my first eBook of sorts out of that disaster!

Two years later, Teacher is gathering a group of his students to make the cross-country trek again, and he is determined to make me part of it.

I would love to have another shot at competing for a national title! But I’ve crunched the numbers and am coming up short. Really short.

Costs for everything are higher for Nationals. Entry fees are higher, the hotel is more expensive, travel costs are also higher due to a necessary airline ticket… I don’t have the money to do a local comp (I crunched those numbers too), let alone fly across country to compete.

Teacher is refusing to take no for an answer.

Not in a “he’s trying to take me for all I’m worth” kind of way, but in a supportive “he thinks I work my butt off and I deserve a chance at a title” way. At our last lesson, Teacher had a whole list of ideas on how I could raise or earn the money. They were good ideas too, but I started feeling a little overwhelmed as he listed them off rapid fire and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I thought about them more on the way home; Teacher was already planning on taking action himself on a couple. If everything went as he envisioned, I would be taking on a lot of extra side work, but it could definitely get me to Florida for the competition.

Which seems a little crazy to me. Here I am, less than two months out and very clearly unable to afford the trip. It’s just not possible. But if I go for these potential opportunities and I’m successful, I could be Instagramming you guys from the USDC ballroom in September. What?

The title of this post is a little joke on my part. I have this impossible goal. If I accept this and don’t do anything, the nature of the goal remains unchanged. If I start preparing for it though, i.e., take action to earn extra money or offset costs, the impossible goal has a chance to become possible. Even if I do take action, it may not be enough. So basically, the goal remains impossible until it isn’t.

That’s how a lot of Life goes though, isn’t it? Things seem impossible until…they just aren’t anymore.

So even though it’s not possible for me to go to Nationals, I’m going to listen to Ms. Hepburn’s comment above and pretend that “Nationals: Impossible” is actually “Nationals: I’m possible.” (Hey, that would have been a cute alternate title!) It’s a little scary to make that little switch actually. I may do a separate post on fears because there isn’t just one demon that’s creeping around my brain and trying to explain who’s up there and what they’re feeding on might take awhile.

At this point, I’m staying cautious and not getting my hopes up. A lot has to work out and a lot of work has to be done for me to make it to this comp. Nonetheless, I did email my dogs’ boarder and ask her to reserve them spots for that week. You know, just in case.