Your Dream. Your Job. And Other Things the Government Wants You to Have Figured Out by 21.

When I was a kid, I took figure skating lessons. I was determined to go to the Olympics. However, my dream was crushed when I turned four and the ice skating rink I took lessons at stopped offering classes.

In tenth grade, I sprained my ankle. But when my friend invited me to her birthday party at the ice skating rink, I wasn't going to let a pair of crutches get in my way. I sent about six Ibuprofen pills down the hatch and said, "Let 'er rip." Pulling skates over a swollen ankle was tough, and it hurt like crazy, but by gosh, if I didn't love ice skating. The cold wind burning my ears. The slight nose drip after riding in circles for hours. Falling after the Zamboni coaxed its watery goodness all over the ice. I loved every part of it, and nothing was going to stop me from ice skating that day.

Lots of kids at the rink were pushing plastic buckets around to keep their balance. I grabbed one so I didn't have to put as much pressure on my sprained ankle, and I had the time of my life skating in circles with an ankle the size of a duck egg. (If you haven't seen a duck egg in person, you most certainly should, they're magnificent.)

My love for ice skating never went away, but my love had to be put in other places when I realized I wasn't going to go to the Olympics.

I decided I wanted to get into television. I wanted to become an actress, write books, write TV shows, direct, you name it. I've known all of this since I was four. I'm 21 now. From four to 21, I've known what I've wanted to do, and that's a long time to love something.

The best advice I have ever received came from a friend of mine named Kit. She told me, "You never stop loving something or someone, but you learn to love other things more." This is one of the most reassuring nuggets of wisdom I've ever heard.

I loved figure skating. It was my dream. I mean, I was four, I didn't know what else was out there. I'm 21, and I still don't know what's out there. Give me a break, I'm only 21. That's like five in horse years. (Human years - age of horse in human years / 3 = x + 2 = age of horse)

If I had to give up my dream now for something, I'd probably die inside. But after the gestation period of a heartbreak (anywhere from 7 months to 35 years depending), I'd bounce back and be better than ever, like Ulysses S. Grant when he went from being an alcoholic to an army general and then U.S. President.

Woah. Ulysses S... U.S... Ulysses S... United States.

Well, I think it's clear we all learned something here today. We learned that Grace knows how letters work and that letting go of a goal is hard. But that shouldn't make you feel like a failure. You tried. You found out it wasn't your cup of tea. So get out there and see what the world has to offer you. You will learn to love something more.

But in order to learn how to fly, you gotta get on an airplane, you gotta take the wheel by the hands, you gotta learn all the crazy buttons, and before you know it, you'll have your pilot's license. After that, you gotta have 1,500 hours of flying before you can fly commercial... Basically, it's gonna take time to learn what you love and to accelerate at it, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.