Growing up, I was surrounded by Judy Garland’s velvet vibrato in Meet Me in St. Louis and Julie Andrews’ sweet timbre in The Sound of Music. With these women as my influences, I eventually joined my school’s choir where the local high school was pulling kids from to be orphans in their production of Oliver! While I was not chosen, the idea of being in a show did not escape my mind.

Eventually, I was cast in Aldersgate Church Community Theater’s production of The Little Mermaid Jr. as a sailor and a blowfish. During the song, Under the Sea, I carried sparkles in my fists for all of the dance breaks. Finally, on the line, “and oh, that blowfish blow!” I blew my sparkles into the audience…that moment was the moment I knew my heart’s calling, all thanks to a purple blowfish costume and some sparkles that probably still haunt that auditorium floor.