Image Courtesy: Instagram/@sharvari
Sharvari said her parents did not treat acting as a vague ambition that she could keep postponing while continuing with her existing studies. “If you want to actually act and you want to be an actor, then go to acting school, learn how to dance, go, you know, be an assistant director, do these 100 things or whatever, whatever that you need to do,” she said. “But you need to figure it out because if you’re going to keep doing science, you’re just going to keep going to classes, you’re going to keep being busy, and you’re not going to do this and you’re not going to be here or there,” she said.
They encouraged her to understand what becoming an actor would require and to start preparing for it. Her parents also made it clear that she needed to figure out the next steps herself. Continuing to study science while hoping to become an actor could leave her too occupied to pursue either direction properly.
A useful way to begin is to ask two separate questions: “What would you like to do?” and “What do you think you would need to learn to do it? The first gives the child room to express an interest; the second turns that interest into a discussion about preparation, effort and realistic next steps. Parents can also help children test a career choice before making a major change. A child interested in acting, for example, could attend a workshop, learn basic performance skills, speak to someone working in the field or explore what acting school involves. These steps allow the family to discuss the commitment required without dismissing the ambition or treating it as an immediate guarantee of success.