But come one, I was one of thousands of people who submitted a photo portraying why they are Broadway's biggest fan, so really what were my chances?
Actually, it turns out that my chances were better than I expected. When the first round of the contest ended, I was notified that I was one of 30 finalists to go on to the next round of the contest!
When I found out I was a finalist to win this Broadway lover's dream prize, you can bet I was prepared to go to war. I mean, tickets to the Tony Awards rehearsal were enough to get me on board... The rest was just icing on the cake.
So go to war is what I did. For 10 days straight, I put everything I had into this contest, working 24 hours a day, neglecting my family and house, and persistently annoying all of my friends, all to try to win a contest. (Who does that?) It was an extremely exhausting 10 days, which I'm glad are now over.
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| (Bonus points if you can name the musicals that these photos are from!) |
Sadly, all I had just wasn't enough. It basically came down to a popularity contest, and, well, I've never really been the popular kid. Ultimately I think I came in 4th place, which if you think about it really isn't too shabby out of thousands of entrants.
Now that the contest has ended, I've spent some time reflecting on my experience. Here's what I've learned:
1. I have amazing friends and family. Ok, so I pretty much knew this already, but this contest only reinforced this fact. I had friends and family voting every hour of every day. I had a friend voting in the middle of the night while feeding her baby. I had a friend set her alarm to remind her to vote every hour. I had a friend vote from a stepper at the gym. And I had friends sharing my photo like crazy! Hey, just because I'm not Ms. Popular, doesn't mean I don't have great friends.
2. People can be surprising. In a good way. Some of the people who were the most supportive of me were people who I really don't see much. Friends from high school. Parents of friends from high school. People I haven't talked to (other than Facebook) in years. People I've only met a few times. I was amazed at the support that showed up in the most unexpected places.
3. I really AM Broadway's biggest fan. Again, this is another one that I already knew. But the amount of time, energy and resources I used on this contest has left me with no question of this fact. I'm just not Broadway's most popular fan.
4. I am never entering another contest like this again. Ever! (So any friends who may have blocked me during this contest, feel free to unblock me so that you can go back to seeing my other awesome posts about what I ate for breakfast or what one of my kids shoved up his nose. I guarantee there will be no more begging for votes!) Some day I will make it to see the Tony Awards and/or the rehearsal. It's definitely a bucket list item. Maybe I'll win the lottery. Maybe I'll win another kind of contest. But a contest like this just isn't going to be the way for me to get there.
Now that this contest is behind me (us), I can rest easy knowing I did everything I could and tried my best. Lots of contestants gave up in the first few days after one contestant took a substantial lead early in the contest. Others obviously stopped trying about half way through when previously mentioned contestant took an even bigger lead. But I kept on going. I put every ounce of energy into this contest, clinging to the hope that somehow enough people would get on board and I would have a huge comeback. There were a few times when I thought I stood a chance. But I just didn't have the connections and amount of social media followers that the winner has.
And let's not forget one of the best things to come out of this contest. I'm happy to have had the chance to partner with the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. I hope that you will consider joining a team to walk or making a contribution of your own. The true fighters are the people fighting monsters like cancer...not the ones fighting to win a contest.
For anyone still reading who helped me by voting, sharing the link/photo, tweeting, contacting people you thought could help, or just encouraging me, thank you just isn't enough. I really have no words to express my gratitude for all the support I received during this contest. I feel like I've let a lot of people down by not winning, as I know there were a lot of people rooting for me, and even several people who invested almost as much time as I did into this contest. I'm sorry I couldn't pull off the win, and I truly appreciate every single person who helped me get as far as I did. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
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