""My parents got divorced when I was a year old. In my community, going to private Jewish day school, no one’s parents are divorced. I was the only kid in my class with divorced parents until high school. So I had to display this perfect picture and be the best I could be at all times. I accomplished this through theatre. 

Performing was something I excelled at and could really just dive into that. I have auditory processing deficits which is a learning disability. So I always kind of felt below everyone at school because I didn’t have the perfect family and I didn’t have the perfect mind when it came to learning. 

It was really hard because I had this passion I wanted to pursue in college but I couldn’t even get into schools because my learning disability was interfering with my test scores. I worked so hard, I took the SATs 4 times, and I couldn’t even score average. It was a horrible senior year - I just kept getting rejection letter after rejection letter. So I decided I wanted to move to NYC.

 

And here I am now! The transition was hard - I felt really unhappy with where I was. I helped form the Hillel here, such a big part of my identity, but have decided to pursue my passion in acting and be part of a larger community elsewhere. So I applied to schools and am waiting to hear back.

 

In my life I always just felt like I had bad luck. I’ve always felt below everyone because I can’t seem to get it right. I’ve accepted that this is my life and it’s a little shitty, but I still persevere. But now I’m here and I’m excelling and I’m working hard to do what I want. No schools have to see my SAT scores and I made Dean’s List. With these accomplishments I can prove to them I am worthy of their school. I know my audition was good, I worked hard on it. So this time I have the attitude that if I don’t get in it won’t hurt as much, because I now believe more in myself. I gave it my best and I’ll just keep trying, and that’s where I’m at right now."