Growing up, I was surrounded by Judy Garland’s velvet vibrato in Meet Me in St. Louis and Julie Andrews’ sweet timbre in The Sound of Music. With these women as my influences, I eventually joined my elementary school’s choir where the local high school was recruiting kids to be orphans in their production of Oliver! While I was not chosen, I could not let go of the idea of being a part of a theatre production.

Shortly after, I was cast in Aldersgate Church Community Theater’s production of The Little Mermaid Jr. as a sailor and a blowfish. During the song “Under the Sea,” I carried sparkles in my fists for all the dance breaks. Finally, on the line, “and oh, that blowfish blow!” I blew my sparkles into the audience…that moment was when I knew my heart’s calling, all thanks to a purple blowfish costume and some sparkles that probably still haunt that auditorium floor.

After all, it only takes a single puff of sparkles to open a magical portal into a lifetime of creativity.