Flying High

It’s 3:00 p.m. on a Tuesday. You’re sitting behind a desk — comfortable, but totally unexcited.

A friend sends you a YouTube link to clips from the Cirque de Soleil show she went to the night before. You see women flying across the air, twisting and twirling in ways your body can’t process. In amazement, you wonder, “How in the world does she do that every night?”

While so many of us are stuck behind desks waiting on the weekend, there are women like Alya Titarenko — star of Cirque de Soleil’s TOTEM — soaring 100 feet in the air for a living.

In the U.S. nearly 21 percent of high-earners qualify as extreme job holders. For most extreme jobbers it’s a choice and something in which they take pride.

Ukrainian Titarenko was five years old when her mother and father decided she would go into acrobatics. “I didn’t plan to be in the circus. Never wanted to,” she says.

Her mother encouraged her to, “Just try,” she remembers. She took the leap and fell in love. “It was like theater,” says Titarenko,

It’s the love of the game — the passion that enables these ladies to take on extreme jobs.

“You can see this on stage,” she says. “Do it for the purpose of loving it,” she suggests to those seeking encouragement.

Given her fear of heights, Titarenko remains surprisingly unafraid.

But, don’t think you will ever see her playing daredevil anywhere else. Rollercoasters? “Oh, no,” she says.

One extreme job can be enough excitement for a lifetime.

Bonus PINK Link: How to Work Your Alter Ego

Dreaming of leaving the quiet life behind for something wild?

By L. Nicole Williams

“Only those who dare, truly live.” Ruth P. Freedman