I will not give you the estimated reading time of this article because if you are like me it might take you as many as three days to read three sentences, stop to make a cardamom tea with milk, scroll on social media, make sourdough bread, read next four sentences, send business emails, read last sentence, match 124 shirts with 48 trousers and 27 loafers & brogues (in the eventuality of finally getting out this year) and come back to the beginning of the article because you don’t remember what exactly was the topic. So, I only give you the hint that this article is openly, utterly about me. To cut the current crap of general tendency to hit the fan with tons of “I will bless you with my all purpose wisdom” stuff.

Recently, one of my overwhelming, demanding, day & night harassing (this is a wish, dear genie) 1K fans of my Instagram asked me what exactly is my profession. In the beginning I was like freaking out & numb & choosing. Then it was a little bit disappointing because I realised for me it should not have been a matter of choosing but randomly picking.

Because I started studying acting 27 years ago. Aaand by the end of my fourth year of Drama School I realised that it’s simply not enough for me anymore. Since my fellow actors and actresses were already asking me to direct their parts in-between rehearsals they were revealing an organic artistic dimension of myself.

So I started all over with studying  Theatre Directing.

Five years later, when I was nominated for my theatre director debut I felt like cheating by falling in love with advertising, glossy magazine & TV stuff. Oh, did I do them with passion, cherishing every late night brainstorming and 6 am deadline.

Aaand I thought to myself, now what? When my first corporate client hired me to design his team’s team building activity I was like “Huh? Shift again?” aaand I enjoyed it with such intensity that several years I was almost completely emersed in public speaking & leadership & presentation skills training. Even if simultaneously I continued my theatre career I still felt growing to something beyond that.

Eight years ago I was surprised to discover that mechanisms that I already used with actors like championing, mirroring, acknowledging, changing perspective, articulating what’s going on, etc were actually coaching tools too. And I was back to school again, in a challenging, fulfilling process. Because I strongly believe that skills and talent are just the beginning. And the only certainty is the continuous learning.

So, here I am, acting, directing, writing, coaching and oh, did I tell you about working with a voice coach and a producer for my first EP? Aaand the recent Fashion Styling Master Class I took (with the most famous Romanian fashion stylist) to put that on top of my life time passion for fashion aaand for consciounsly adding professional styling to my creative services?

That being said, I don’t find relevance in choosing only one of my paths in order to fit labels. And I am not the only one, I guess.

And maybe it isn’t after all entirely about me. I am pretty sure there is out there a great chef that is also a good journalist (actually I know one), an ecological farmer that is also IT manager (I know one too), a  therapist who is also a constructor (yep), etc. And I do think there are a lot of us ready to kick in this new world we’re about to live from now on. Because this may be the next Renaissance we’ve all secretly dreamed of.

PS: Ok, I must admit this is also an extended cover letter & CV pack as I practiced a lot this lockdown.

Dan Vasile