It was February 8th, 2015, and Sunday morning dawned bright and early, as most days have a way of dawning. ;) Mom ended up having to stay home with Lydia, Judah, and Cassilyn since they were recovering from colds or something. But the rest of us got ready for church and left the house earlier than normal, due to the fact that Seth was serving at church. :) I much prefer being early over late. In case you didn't know, I'm quite social, so if I have a chance to be out and about, I'll make the most of it. :) Thus, as soon as we got to church I headed in with Eden and Seth in tow. Dad, Kimber, and Caleb were hanging out in the van. I kept checking my phone to see if someone had called (with the hope that I had passed the auditions ;), but didn't see anything. By the time dad, Kimber, and Caleb came into church the service was about to start, so we walked right in without any exchange of words. The sermon was on 2 Timothy. It seemed to correlate well to my circumstances at the moment. Some of my notes were, "Romans 11:24-25- Forget not who you serve; Give glory to He Whom it is due; I am not my own; the opposite of self-esteem is not self-hate but esteeming GOD; Colossians 2:8-9- My God is sufficient for me- I need nothing else than a chance to praise Him." After the sermon was over, and we were exiting our pew, dad says to me, "I got a call." And I'm sorta thinking, "Look, if it's AMTC, just tell me already. Don't drag it out and make it dramatic." ;) And he continues, "Yeah, I thought I kind of recognized the number." So at this point I blurt out, "So did you answer it?!" And he said, "Yeah, I picked it up and the person on the other end said, 'Hi Mr. Wassenberg, this is Nat, from AMTC.' I told him that, yes, I knew who he was and that we were hoping that we would hear from him, and so he continued, 'I just wanted to let you know that your daughter passed the auditions.' " That's all y'all need to know about that phone conversation. ;) Daddy then proceeded to tell me how, during the worship at the beginning of the service, he was tearing up and just giving me up to the Lord to use me in whatever way He sees fit. As daddy is telling me this, he starts crying, and of course, I just found out I passed the auditions but I'm in the sanctuary so I'm trying not to jump up and down and freak out. And I just start crying too and letting out little squeaks. ;) Nothing too noticeable. ;) Daddy and I then shared a big hug as we cried together with Caleb and Kimber looking on. :) I couldn't believe it. I had actually passed the auditions!! Wow, this was huge. The biggest event in my life to date, that's for sure. And you'll find out just why I was so elated if you keep reading. ;) So I walk out of the sanctuary and into the 242 (the fellowship room at our church). Trying not to look like I've been crying or anything. ;) I immediately go tell Paw-paw and Na-naw and they are both very excited and happy for me. :) Then, a friend asks if I'm alright and I tell her "yes, well, kind of, well, I'm just freaking out because..." as she looks at me with concern and confusion. ;P Eventually I get the story out and she's happy for me as well. :) Next I went outside and called mom with the news. I think it goes without saying that she was also happy for me. ;) When I went back inside was casually chatting with another friend (and trying not to say anything about my audition). And while we're talking Na-naw walks by exclaiming something about how she's so happy for me but I can't go off and leave her, and my friend is standing there like, "Ok, what's going on?" So then I explain it all over again. :) I wasn't tired of sharing my news, and I'm still not. ;) He was, of course, very happy for me as well. He told me if I made an album he'd be sure to buy it. ;) So there I have my first prospective customer. ;) Nice to know. :) When we got home, I organized and condensed all my lyrics using Microsoft Word and then printed them out. This took quite some time, and by the time I looked at the clock it was 2:59pm. Realizing we needed to head back up to MD for the IGNITE session, and remembering dad had said something about leaving at 3pm, I went outside and told dad what time it was. He quickly got the truck pulled up and ready as I grabbed some last-minute things. I hopped in the truck, and we were on our way. We were supposed to be there at 5pm but ended up getting there around 5:20. Not too bad. :) Ms. Lewis had already started explaining what the next steps for us would be. Now that I've passed auditions, I will be training and preparing for the SHINE conference. They have one in July, but we decided to go to the one in December of this year. That way, it's during daddy's "dead" season and he'll be able to attend the conference with me. The SHINE conference is a 6 day event held at the Gaylord resort in Orlando, FL. They have speakers there and, most importantly, 50-100 professionals in the media industry who have come to watch us preform. Included in the cost for what I'll be doing with AMTC, are three "showcases" at the SHINE conference. This means I have three opportunities to preform in front of all these professionals. This gives them the chance to see what I have to offer, and, if they are interested, to meet with me at the end of the week and discuss potential opportunities to work for/with them. :D There is nothing like this anywhere else, and people come to this from all over the world. The SHINE conference is by invitation only (which is why I auditioned ;). So from now until the SHINE conference in December, I will be training and getting trained by professionals so that I am at my best when I get to SHINE. I have a 20 module online course that I will be taking. It is packed full of pictures, videos, and information to help me progress in my singing, acting, and modeling skills. I also get daily devotionals from AMTC because keeping my foundation in Christ strong and growing is the most important of all. I will have three "LAUNCH" meetings at my "hub" in NYC. At a LAUNCH, I will be working with my professional coaches, Bob & Faith Reel, as they train me in person and work on the things I'll be preforming at SHINE. One of these "LAUNCH's" will be before June of this year. The others will be later in the year. Then, a few months before the SHINE conference, I will have a professional photo-shoot done in NYC. I will bring my entire wardrobe and they select, not only my clothes for the photo-shoot, but also the outfits I will be wearing every day at the SHINE conference- on and off stage. Then they'll probably spend 2 hours doing my hair and make-up, and an additional 2-3 hours doing my two styled photo-shoots. This is, as you probably could have guessed, all done by professionals that travel internationally (read: are very good at what they do). :) From this I'll probably get around 200 pictures. They will pick out their favorites and create my portfolio. This will be handed to each of the V.I.P.'s at the SHINE conference so that they each have a professionally done portfolio of me to peruse. AMTC will also make for me all the marketing tools I need from these pictures (business-card king of things, I guess ;). I think that covers most of what will be going on. After Ms. Lewis finished explaining all of this she gave us some "Modeling 101". :) Telling us the basic stances we will need to know for our photo shoot in NYC. She also told us how we should greet/shake the hand of a V.I.P. when we meet one, and how to sit and such if we are in a meeting with one. :) Then, we headed to a different room where we did all our paper work. After that was done, we went to our first acting class. Mr. Chu was our instructor. He taught us about prompts and gave us an assignment. He told us to write 200 prompts when we got home and to practice 3-5 every day. Thankfully, I'm done writing my prompts now. ;) With help from my family members as well as a friend, I was done in two days. ;) After we finished working on prompts, we got to act our cold scripts. Basically, we were handed a piece of paper with maybe 10 scripts to choose from. We had to pick one and act it out to the best of our abilities. I didn't go until the end so I could hear the tips Mr. Chu gave as each person went up and acted out their script. Mine ended up being about a vegetarian whose order got messed up. She got a greasy burger....not top on a vegetarian's list of foods to eat. :/ You should've seen her attitude, man. It was a bad day to mess with this vegetarian lady. ;) The poor teenage cashier didn't know what he was getting in to. ;) After our class with Mr. Chu was over, me and another girl, Melissa (the only other singer/songwriter in the group), went over to Mr. Nat's room. There he gave us some tips on what to do and what not to do when we got on stage at SHINE. He told us to eat healthy and exercise. Now, those of you who know me well know that I practically despise exercise. At least I despise running. But when your coach tells you to work-out: YOU DO IT. And you not only do it, but you do it happily. Anything for coach. ;) So, believe it or not, I actually work-out now. ;) And it's not that terrible. As long as I don't have to jog. ;) But moving on. He also told us the things we would need to prepare to bring to our first LAUNCH and things we would need to figure out for the SHINE conference. After the session with Mr. Nat was over, dad and I left and headed to grandpa & grandma's house. :) We got there around 10:30pm and ate some salad and a delicious noodle soup grandma had made. Oh, and don't forget her delicious garlic bread. To top it all off, we ate some of the left-over Carvel ice-cream cake from the night before. :) I enjoyed sharing with grandpa and grandma how the day went and what all was going on in my life. Dad and I got home and in the bed by 2am. Gracious, these crazy schedules have me so confused. I'm having a hard time keeping my days straight. ;) Now that I'm back home, I'm awaiting an email from AMTC that will give me access to my online course. I can't wait to get started! Hopefully this experience will grow me in Christ and in my maturity as well. To Jesus be the glory! What an incredible opportunity He has given me! Please keep me in your prayers as I go out into this world as a media missionary. I would appreciate it greatly! :)
~Alexis Noel
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