I was behind a number of cars all eagerly waiting to park their cars and it dawned on me, parking was going to cost me $30 (I hate LA)!! It was then I had a horrific Flash Back to my X-Factor audition experience and I made the decision to turn the car around and go home.
//////FLASH BACK\\\\\\
February 2011
X-Factor Audition
LA Sports Arena
All participants who were there to audition were told to be at the sports arena at 6:00am. As a responsible person, I woke up at 4:00am, woke up my (then) Fiance picking him up at 4:30am, and arrived to a crowd of thousands at 5:00am. It had rained that night and there was a bit of a drizzle, weather was a warm 55degrees. >:\ and it was dark. They packed us in like cattle headed in for the slaughter as we stood in the cold, wet parking lot for 5 1/2 hours!! They had an entire section blocked off with porta-pottys, and by the time I gained the courage to use them, they were the most disgusting, horrible, dirty, wet, stinky, stained, slippery, out of toilet paper pieces of junk I ever in my life used!! GROSS - I hate LA
Eventually around 11:00am they guided everyone into the arena and we were sat in a section according to our number. I was sat in the 3rd level at the end. It took them a good hour to finally start auditions - which were just 20 voting booth sized sheeted off sections where people sang at people. We got hungry and spend $24 on 2 hotdogs and a bag of chips! This was incredibly ridiculous and made me angry as we were poor and planning a wedding.
by 4:00pm they had finally made their way through listening to the 1st row of singers...I started doing the math, I was not even going to be heard for another 5-6 hours if I was lucky. So I thought about it, talked about it with my man, and decided, this isn't the way. So we packed up our bags, said our goodbyes to those around us, stretched out our legs and went to Titos Tacos!
//////FLASH TO NOW\\\\\\
See. I love to sing, I love to perform I love loving life! It has always been a dream of mine to make a living doing what I'm passionate about - music. As Americans, the modern frame of thought is "Immediate Satisfaction", the search for the "Quick Fix" in all things. I know I can sing, I know I can play guitar and I know that only 1 person out of a crowd of 10,000 people will make it to the end - those are HORRIBLE odds! I also am sound minded enough to know that "this" isn't my only or my last chance at a music career.
I'm reminded lovingly by my husnand that I can make my own EP at home on my computer, sell my music on itunes, Amazon, Google Play. I could also post my songs & create videos and post them on YouTube. We are in the era that anyone can be "found" anywhere! How amazing that we have all these different venues to showcase ourselves, our talents and our dreams. I can do this on MY terms.
Another part of my thoughts that encouraged me to not even park my car and leave is that, my time is far more valuable to me at this point in my life. I work 50+ hours a week, with a commute of 1 hour each way, each day! That's 10 hours in drive time a week. I have commitments to my church during the week, my friends and family during the week and myself (gym) each week. My husband and I were kindly invited over for dinner to a friends house that evening and I knew we wouldn't make it when I saw that line. Building relationships and nurturing friendships is more important to me than waiting in line behind 3,000 people, for just a chance to be heard, for just the chance of getting a call back, for a just a chance of making it to the group, for a just chance to be in the group they narrow down for TV. Just for a chance.
We write our own future!
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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