One thing I wish I’d ever learned to do as a young student is to fully appreciate the value of both my strengths and my weaknesses as a performing artist. In fact, it’s quite clear to me now that I gave neither category its proper due. Like a character out of a George R. R. Martin novel, I viewed my greatest strength (singing) as a sort of birthright that required constant defense against interlopers (including my own, well-intentioned mother), and my weaknesses (acting, dance) as sources of deep, deep shame. As a result, I improved at none of them—at least not at any kind of useful pace—and it was only after my first (and only) college audition that I began to admit that perhaps I’d been doing myself a disservice.
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