In front of an adoring crowd, Nick Paulson performs during the APhA-ASP Opening General Session at APhA2018 in Nashville.
“A 6-year-old will do anything for $5,” my mom must have thought to herself as she slid the $5 bill across the kitchen table 19 years ago. That’s all it took to get me to join my sister and cousins at the McAleer School of Irish Dance in Wilmington, DE, where we learned from the same instructor who taught my mom and her sisters how to dance. Soon after, my dad built a wooden stage in our basement so I could practice at home.
Looking back, I probably spent more time down there than in my own bedroom.
A life of competition
It wasn’t long before I started entering local competitions. Just 1 year after I started training, I placed third at the regional championships, and the local competitions turned into regional, national, and international ones—not without a great deal of hard work and sacrifice, though. Throughout high school and college, I practiced 20 to 40 hours per week. Some days I was obsessed with becoming the best, and some days I hated every second of practice, but I had a goal to reach, and nothing was going to get in my way.
When it was all said and done (my competitive career, that is), I had won a total of eight regional championships, four North American championships, two All Scotland Championships, and one Great Britain Championship, and I was ranked second at the world championships. I will be forever thankful to have competed in such prestigious competitions, but winning trophies pales in comparison to experiencing the journey with my friends from all over the world. If it weren’t for the strong relationships I had with dancers I met at competitions, I would have stopped a long time ago.
“Lord of the Dance”
In summer 2015, after graduating from the University of Delaware, I spent a week in New York City auditioning for Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance.” Two weeks later, I boarded a plane to Bulgaria and began a journey that I would never forget. From the coastal towns of Croatia to the historical Prague, we performed in eight countries and 25 cities throughout Eastern Europe. We traveled to places that I would have never visited otherwise, so no matter how busy or tired I was during the tour, I always made sure to explore, if only for a few hours.
After the world tour, we flew right to New York City to begin rehearsals for our stint on Broadway. The Lyric Theatre, on the corner of 43rd and Broadway, became home for the next few months. Eight times a week, I was performing for hundreds of screaming fans. I had to pinch myself every so often because it didn’t seem real. It was just close friends who had all known each other from a young age through the competitive circuit, doing what we loved every night and getting paid for it. It was the best job in the world! I was humbled by the number of friends and family that traveled to see me dance.
PharmDancer
After a year on tour, I knew that the transition back to an academic setting would be challenging, and as eager as I was to roll up my sleeves and get to work, I would miss that feeling of being on stage. I wanted to focus all my attention on pharmacy school, so I stopped dancing all together. I quickly realized that dance wasn’t something that I did, but it was who I was, so when I quit, there was a huge hole in my life. Coincidentally, I became more stressed and irritable around the same time. It took me longer than I am proud to admit to make the connection.
After recognizing the role Irish dance plays in my life, I knew I needed to make a change. While studying for finals last year, I got a phone call from none other than the woman who taught my mom, my sister, my cousins, and me. She asked if I wanted to take over the championship program at her school. I thought to myself, “This seems like fate.” Now, every Monday night, I teach a studio full of dancers eager take the same path that I have taken. Now I get to guide young dancers towards their dreams. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And hearing the cheers from a room full of student pharmacists on stage at the APhA Annual & Exposition in Nashville this past March was an incredible experience. It was a feeling I have not had since dancing on Broadway!
Nicholas Paulson is a third-year PharmD candidate at the Thomas Jefferson University Jefferson College of Pharmacy.