Nothing in the world makes me happier than being an artist. My journey to discovering how much I love to create art has been a liberating experience. I grew up in a small town in the suburbs of Chicago surrounded by a loving family, lots of sports, and not a lot of art. When I say that I was a sports kid, I did every sport that I wanted to try - soccer, softball, volleyball, tennis, gymnastics, and track - and I had the support of my parents at every single game. When I was tiny, my mom called me her songbird, so it was no surprise when I did my first musical in 6th grade. What my family wasn’t expecting, however, was for me to fall in love with being on stage. I had always wanted to be a rockstar when I grew up, but I had never explored trying out dance until 8th grade, so from then on, I was sold to the art form. During my freshman year of high school, I played JV soccer and volleyball while also juggling doing the musical, dance, and choir. The theatre scene was also incredibly competitive at my high school, so my parents were nervous about me dropping my past to be on stage, but I assured them that this was what I needed to do. By sophomore year, I was in every musical, play, and performance possible. My dad cried at my last soccer game. I’d only seen him cry twice before that moment.