It’s hard in the moment. And I was 18, 19 for my first tryout, and I’m like ‘Why?’ thinking the world is over. I got turned down almost every year — except for, I wasn’t doing it for 2011, 2012. But every year after that. So 2010, and every year after that I would come in for a tryout. Got turned down every single time. And then I was like, ‘Okay.’ Around 2017, I was like, ‘I’m done. I’m over it.’ And they had me as a Rosebud for like, six months. And I was driving from New York to, like, Carolina, Virginia, everywhere. I even flew myself in, because I was like, ‘I want them to see how much this means to me.’

And it’s funny, ’cause I feel like a lot of people who are just coming up now? They have no idea what that process is. They have no idea what you know, really paying your dues to get to that point means. And sacrificing, when you don’t have money, when you don’t have anything … but I did what I had to do. Because I knew like, something in me just knew, that this is what I was meant to do. (H/T: 411Mania)