BWW Blog: You Are So Enough

Before I began auditioning for musical theatre colleges, I definitely had my doubts. The constant "Am I good enough?" or "What if someone else is better than me?" would dance in my head as frequently as my love for donuts and the spelling of donughts. It confuses me a lot.

Okay back on donut, I mean track. You know the saying, "There's always going to be somebody better than you and there's always going to be somebody that's worse than you"? Well gee-- what an encouraging sentiment, one of which I beg to differ. My rebuttal begins with a quote from Dr. Seuss: "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you." Who can be a better you than you can?

At AMDA, I'm spending my days surrounded by incredibly talented artists. Before I got there, I thought this would be intimidating and I'd feel insecure or worried about others being "better," but all I felt was love. We are all so supportive of each other & I got so inspired because we were on the same team. When I walk or log into these rooms/zooms of love that I speak of, I never feel like I'm not enough. There would be classes where all of us would sing the same song but it didn't seem like that. It was like we all were singing a different song. And we are. (Not to be taken literally because I think a lot of us jamming to "Driver's License" right now.)

Before this experience I used to get caught up in the 'better than' thing because I had people telling me I wasn't as good as other people were at this. That's right-- because I'm different than they are, and they're different from me, and we all have a different journey and process. They have their good and I have mine. We're all different people with different lives, different voices, and different stories. There will be times where we find ourselves in a place where we didn't make the cut, or didn't fit or match the directors vision. But we should refrain from jumping to the conclusion that we aren't good enough.

As Sierra Boggess would say, "You are enough, you are so enough, it is unbelievable how enough you are." Take that with you, put it in your pocket, because there is going to be auditions you step into where it's not your part, and others where it is your part. That's the only difference. Theatre is trial and error. You keep going. You audition for everything until one day the no's have led you to your yes. Because you're you. And also not ignoring the fact that it's also because you have worked your butt off to train for your dreams. And spent years of singing The Phantom Of The Opera in your basement to achieve that money note every day after school or whatever your vibe is.

So it's a bundle of working really hard, messing up, trying again, training like crazy, being you and knowing that you are so enough. We can always grow in our craft and get stronger and learn how to do things we didn't know how to do before. But you are not anything less. We can improve whilst knowing that nothing is ever perfect and nothing will ever be perfect but you can do anything you put your mind to. And I think that's the formula to success. Yet, that doesn't mean there won't be times where we don't succeed, times where we forget the words or freeze or trip on our way to talk to the accompanist (which totally didn't happen). But, I don't think of that as failing. I think of it as another experience and opportunity to learn more about our craft and ourselves. And if that remains the case, I'd fail a thousand times over. Growing and learning and reaching until we finally meet our destiny.

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