Life: Planned!

When I was little, Mom and Dad were like, "You can be anything you want when you grow up!"

I was like, "Sweet. I wanna be a bird."

They were like, "Umm... crap. We totally lied."

They then had to qualify their statement. Since then, I've been trying to find a non-bird aspiration that is as cool as the bird option. Mission: difficult.

Once I was 98% sure I couldn't be a bird, I decided I just wanted to be famous. However, I couldn't decide if I wanted to be a famous singer or a famous actress. Such decisions! I was clearly cut out for both paths. I merely had to choose which glamorous life better suited me. Sigh, the life of a superstar. Then, one shiny day, the clouds parted. I saw a J-Lo movie. I realized I no longer had to choose. If J-Lo could be both, then freakin' so could I.

This is me dancing at my brother's wedding. TOTAL same.

This was my aspiration for a long time. Super-singing-acting-double-threat-diva-stardom was my only goal in life until high school. In the 11th grade, I entered the Miss Mandarin pageant. I don't tell a lot of people about the Miss Mandarin pageant, but it was crazy times. Maybe it'll get its own post one day soon.

[I just realized that maybe some of you have no idea what "Miss Mandarin" is. I'm not Asian... despite the confusion you may get from my name and the name of my high school. In Florida, we name things after oranges. I went to Mandarin High School. Miss Mandarin was the high school beauty pageant.]

In the Miss Mandarin pageant, I had to talk about how much I loved volunteering and how I wanted to grow up to be a useful member of society. My dreams of being a super-singing-acting-double-threat-diva-star didn't really fit this mold. Especially since the other girls wanted to be doctors and news anchors and baby-savers.

I thought about it for 20 seconds and remembered that my oldest brother was having a blast studying journalism. That sounded fun.

Judge: What do you want to be when you grow up? How do you intend to rescue all the babies?
Asia: Journalism?

Needless to say, I didn't win nothin'. But it was a good experience.

Journalism continued to sound appropriately grown-up and sophisticated for the rest of high school. During the summer after graduation though, things changed again.

One day my brother was headed to auditions for a local movie so he could cover it for his college newspaper. I decided to come along. It was a movie about high schoolers being emotional. We both ended up auditioning. A few days later, I got a call. I had landed a lead role.

On set!

For a couple of weeks that summer, I was a movie star. I got to smack some dude in the face and pretend to be drunk and wear a pretty dress. The best part of that experience, though, wasn't feeling like a superdiva. It was being on set. I fell in love with the processes that happened behind the camera.

They never finished the movie, so (perhaps luckily...) no one will ever see my foray into acting. But this got the wheels turning in my head. I was going to BYU and I was going to study film. What was I going to do with film? No idea.

I started college and found a path. My life-long curse of being a super duper bossy pants finally came in handy. I was to be a UPM. So life provided a path for me. All was well with the universe.

So now I'm graduated and I need to figure out what to do from here.

[crickets chirping]

Two days ago I discovered Talent Quest, the national karaoke competition. I seem to remember a Gwyneth Paltrow movie where she made a living by travelling around singing karaoke. Sounds perfect. I don't need no record deal, American Idol. I just need the road, a MIDI version of "My Heart Will Go On", and a dream.

Life: pwned.