My Voice

I am a singer. As a child, I grew up singing to Disney classics like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and Cinderella. When I was a little girl, I would listen to my sister Monica sing when she still lived with us before getting married. She had such a sweet gentle voice, like a songbird. Later on, when I was about 8, The Little Mermaid hit theaters, with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin following shortly thereafter. Yep, Disney did inspire a lot of music in me those days. Going to church on Sunday mornings and joining with voices in congregational Praise and Worship was also the norm for me. But like most musically oriented people, I think I was just born with a tendency to sing. I would sing in the shower, in front of the mirror, along with the radio and tapes, and pretty much everywhere. During my adolescence, Mariah Carey had become a huge success with her voice that was like no other. Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Jaci Velasquez also set the standard for amazing vocals during that time. Those were the vocal guidelines that I taught myself to follow. I could sing like any of them, for real tho... not like the crazies that go to American Idol and think they're great, but really suck LOL! However, always a bit insecure as a kid, I never openly pursued singing in front of large crowds or purposely showed off in front of peers, and when I did, I didn't seem to get much enthusiastic encouragement from anyone besides my family members. All excuses aside, I suffered from severe stage fright. I knew I could sing my heart out and kick major ass and that I had a special gift, but every time I would stand up to sing in front of people, I would get extremely nervous. My voice would be shaky and crack during the best and most challenging parts of the song. I didn't know why this happened to me, and it seemed like something I just couldn't control. I went through school listening to others sing, and knowing I could sing just as good or better was so frustrating because I simply didn't have the guts to get up and do it too. Weird huh? ...That God would give a gift like that to someone like me? ...and with a confidence problem like that? In high school, my choir teacher loved me... that's when I started to open up more. The other students in the class were impressed as well, but that was already Senior year. When I graduated, I moved to Virginia. I forced myself to join the church choir in order to get out of my shell a little more, and it worked. Soon, I was singing solos and receiving compliments from many people. I remember the first time I sang a difficult Mariah Carey Christmas song and hit every single note perfectly. The rush was so intense, and it was pure joy! On another occasion, I sang a Whitney Houston gospel song. With each song, it became easier and easier to keep control of my nerves and my vocal chords. I became much more comfortable with performing. I decided openly what I always knew in my heart, but didn't think I could do until then... I wanted to be be a performer; I wanted to be an entertainer. I moved back down to Florida to Orlando to study music at UCF. Instead, I ended up studying audio engineering at Full Sail, a well-known entertainment industry school. When I finished, I decided to move to NYC to pursue acting and music. Various circumstances eventually led me here, to California.

Throughout my life, I have dabbled here and there: I have written a few songs, I have learned the basics of piano, attempted to pick up guitar, and I have even recorded a couple of tracks in a professional studio. The last few years, I have focused the majority of my efforts on acting, but I have not forgotten my first love, my voice. Sadly, my voice is out of shape right now, but I know the awesome potential that is still very present there. In recent months, the desire to sing again, and this time to the utmost excellence, has been sparked again. I am determined to train my voice better than ever before and begin performing somehow somewhere, even if it is in the smallest of venue. I also intend to use it as a competitive edge in getting an agent and booking acting roles that incorporate and require musical ability. I pray that God will give me another chance, because when I sing, and especially when I hit that high, high note perfectly and with power, I feel alive and radiant. I really feel like I'm flying high. I truly hope, as I always have deep down inside, that someday... I can share my talent with the whole world.