That movie was called Center Stage.
I was going through such a difficult time in my life where I was constantly sick from the pressure to be perfect as a gymnast.
I would throw up once a week before gymnastics because I was so scared, and this caused me to miss over half the school year.
Eventually, I got the courage to quit, but at the time, it was all I knew - which was terrifying.
I love my mom with all my heart, but when I finally got the courage to tell her, she looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t like you right now. I can’t be around you for a while.”
When I saw this movie Center Stage, I felt what it meant to have a purpose again, and I knew in that instant that that’s what I wanted to do with my life.
I told everybody. I was like, “I’m gonna act. I’m gonna dance. I wanna go to LA. I wanna perform. I wanna inspire people.”
And everybody said, “Yeah, right. Have fun trying. Nobody ever makes it.”
I kept watching that movie, and I kept getting re-inspired, and I kept remembering why I was working so hard, and I kept just believing, like, “If she could do it, I could do it.”
Life from there didn’t go perfectly. I didn’t get into my dream college... a school that by every mark I should have been a shoo-in for.