My mother always told me that I was born singing. When she nursed me during my first days at the hospital, I was humming as I was content to have food. I remembered as a kid that I loved to sing, but my voice was awkward and scratchy. During school Mass at a parochial school in Missouri, my best friend would snicker at me as my voice would squeak and crack at every note I sang.

Bu that changed one day when I was singing at Mass again. But in a different church in my new hometown in Louisiana. A lady who was running a music service came up to me and said very seriously, "You have an awesome voice." That was literally the first time that I had ever heard anyone say this. I took the compliment with a very shy thank you and left it at that. But for some reason, her words always stuck with me.

But when I turned 16, I wanted so badly to be an opera singer, more than anything in the world. It was everything I always wanted. I once told an old friend that I wanted to be an opera singer. Yup, he laughed in my face and said it would never happen because only top-notch voices sing opera. I considered that dream crushed forever.

I decided to join the teen choir at my church, despite never really having been in a choir before. This teen choir was run by the same woman who complimented me years before, and, well to make a long story short, I was designated to play flute and sing sometimes with the choir.

To make a long story short, my choir director told me that I had a classical voice one day when we were talking about my range as I waited for my mom to pick me up. It was exciting for me to hear that, as it brought back that old desire for me to be an opera singer and it renewed hope inside my heart. I was grateful for her words.

Making an even longer story short, I decided to enroll in voice lessons my first semester as a flute major. I was nervous. I had never had even a hint of voice lessons before, but my first teacher took me in anyway. I'm sure he was not expecting much but my first lesson he was happy that I had the voice I did despite never having lessons. Within two semesters, I was already getting into major arias for operas, gearing up for a potential career in opera. I ended up leaving the vocal program because I wanted to pursue writing, but what singing taught me, is to never give up. If you want something badly enough, go for it without any regrets, despite the laughter and judgments of others because you just might surprise yourself and what you're capable of. And for the record, I still sing today! I didn't give it up.