Ever since I was a little girl, I loved performing. My mom was a dancer before she had me, and like many girls of my generation, I was enrolled in dance classes at a young age. An appreciation for dance quickly turned into an interest in theatre, so I began to take acting classes.

While I was soon bitten by the theatre bug and quickly began dreaming of becoming a professional actress, I still did very well in school. I was in many advanced courses during my entire schooling career and I always tested well in the state standardized tests, but that meant nothing to me. I wanted to be famous.

Thankfully, my parents and other family members supported my dream every step of the way, which, as someone who was extremely close to her family, it meant a lot to me. My step father even co-signed my student loan to my conservatory, which was not at all inexpensive. For which I will be eternally grateful.

A few months after I graduated high school I was off to NYC to live on the Upper West Side and begin to chase my dreams. My school was extremely demanding both time wise and physically. I had dance classes, stage combat, improv, voice — and this was added to three different kinds of acting classes. All of which required I supply my own costumes, props and scripts, which meant I had to purchase a lot of things in addition to my life-sustaining food and such. There were days where I was in my school for over 16 hours between classes and rehearsals with any scene partners. I quickly started running haggard, I scarcely had time to sleep, but my parents needed me to get a job because they were going into debt trying to help me out. So at the halfway point of my program I took a semester off to get a job and have some time to recharge and relax.

I began working at a sports bar and restaurant in my town where I began working with a lot of adults, many of whom had college degrees and a ton of life experience. Becoming close with them and being home gave me some new perspective. I realized I lost my passion for performing. I felt emotionally detached from it, which is one of the worst feelings for an actress. I also realized I loved living in Manhattan, but I was hating every part of school, and with every story I heard from my friends going to a traditional college, I felt like I was missing out on that experience. So I rethought my entire life's priorities.

I realized my goal in life was to be able to financially support myself, which is very difficult for a working actress on her own. I also wanted to feel emotionally and mentally well, which I did not feel facing the constant critique and rejection of being an actress. I became depressed during my time in the city and I wasn't able to see how bad it was until I took a step back and looked at my life there.

While performing is something I will always want to pursue in my spare time, I look forward to my "real college experience." I'll attend football games and maybe even a frat party or two, and naturally all of my classes. I'm excited to see where my life will go while I'm getting my degree. All I know is maybe I don't have my entire life figured out right now, but that's okay. The important thing is I have my family and the people closest to me supporting me while I figure out this thing called life.