I went to 'The Nutcracker' every year with my grandma and aunt.

When Jinkx Monsoon spoke, “I went to ‘The Nutcracker’ every year with my grandma and aunt. Then, in my early teen years, I thought I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I went real gung-ho in that direction, and I started performing in ‘The Nutcracker’,” they revealed not only a memory, but a profound truth about how passion is born from tradition, nurtured by love, and tested by youthful fire. This is not simply the tale of a stage or a dance—it is the eternal story of how inspiration passes from one generation to the next, like a flame carried carefully from torch to torch.

The grandma and aunt, in their devotion, created a ritual: each year they brought the child to the world of music, motion, and magic. This repetition was not trivial. It carved a groove in the memory, a sacred path leading always toward wonder. For the young, what is repeated with love becomes sacred. Just as the Israelites recited their stories by the fireside, or as the Greeks gathered each year for their tragedies, so too did this family’s pilgrimage to The Nutcracker sow the seeds of destiny in the heart of a child.

In the early teen years, when the soul awakens to its own desires and seeks to claim identity, Jinkx heard the whisper: “I want to be a ballet dancer.” This desire was no accident, but the natural flowering of the seeds planted through ritual. Here lies the meaning: what we expose the young to, year after year, may one day become the compass of their path. If they are brought to beauty, they will long to create it. If they are steeped in discipline and art, they will dream to embody it.

Consider the story of the young Ludwig van Beethoven. His father would take him again and again before the piano, sometimes harshly, sometimes lovingly, until the boy’s world revolved around keys and chords. What began as repetition became obsession, and what was obsession became mastery. Just as Beethoven transformed the music of the world, Jinkx, inspired by the timeless grace of The Nutcracker, was drawn with passion—“gung-ho,” as they said—into the discipline of performance. Tradition birthed passion, and passion birthed action.

Yet the story also carries wisdom about transformation. For though Jinkx’s path would not end in ballet, the lessons of the dance—the discipline, the stagecraft, the devotion—became stones laid along the road to another destiny. The youthful fire for ballet was not wasted, even if it did not last forever. This truth must be passed down: no passion, however temporary, is wasted. Each attempt, each pursuit, teaches the soul something it will carry into its next great calling.

The lesson is clear: expose yourself, and those you love, to beauty, to art, to discipline. Repeat it until it carves grooves into the soul. Do not fear if passions rise and fall, for they are stepping stones. What matters is not that the first love lasts forever, but that it ignites the spirit and reveals the soul’s capacity for pursuit. Youthful zeal, even if redirected, forges strength that endures.

Practical action follows from this teaching. Parents, guardians, mentors—bring the young to noble experiences, again and again, even when they do not yet understand their value. To the youth themselves: pursue your passions fully, without fear that they may change. Let each passion teach you discipline, courage, and self-expression. And to all: honor the rituals of your life, for within them may lie the seeds of future greatness.

Thus the memory of Jinkx Monsoon is more than personal nostalgia; it is an ancient teaching reborn in modern words. Tradition, family, and passion are the three strands that weave the destiny of the young. If we tend them wisely, we shape not only individual lives but the very fabric of humanity. And so the story of a child at The Nutcracker becomes a story for all: that greatness begins in small rituals, in sparks of inspiration, and in the courage to leap boldly, even if only for a season, into the dance of life.