The accomplishment that means the most to me is not my olympic gold medal or Nobel peace prize, it was seeing Saturday Night Live live. Since I was 11 years old I have wanted to see SNL live. I did all my research on how to get to the show. I didn’t have any connections so it wasn’t going to happen for me that way. I entered the raffle every summer, but alas no luck. I begged my mom everyday, to take me to wait in the standby line. She told me if I stopped asking she would take me when I turned 18. 7 years went by and we were off to New York. When we got to the line my mom was discouraged, she believed there was no way we would get in. We could watch it at our hotel, close enough right? Not quite, but it fueled my fire to do everything I could to see it one day.
The summer of 2018 I was living in Washington DC for an internship. My first weekend happened to line up with the season 42 finale. I realized that a bus ride to New York would only take 4 hours. I bought the 4 pm bus ticket and let my work know I had to leave early. They didn’t hold up their end of the deal and needed me to stay until 4:30. I missed my bus… have you ever noticed when you really want something there are more obstacles?
I bought a 5pm ticket and headed to the station in rush hour traffic on a wing and a prayer. After 5 hours crammed next to a heavyset gentleman and greyhound window I arrived. As I let out a sign of relief, it started to rain. Perfect weather for a night of sitting on the street.
The line was wrapped around 28th and 6th. The first people in line had been there since Thursday morning and here I was rolling in at 10:30pm the night before. I made it through the night by making friends. We played games, reenacted our favorite sketches, and ate street pizza. Sitting in my twin bed comforter that I fashioned into a sleeping bag, shivering from the cold, I reflected on how much I had gone through to attempt to satisfy a childhood dream, that wasn’t guaranteed to happen.
7am came and I got a standby ticket for the 4:30pm taping. When I arrived at the show, I waited in another line, went through security and got into the elevator. The final step. I was so close to studio 8H. It wasn’t until the opening intro and the fanfare that I realized I had done it. I had completed my goal of seeing Saturday Night Live LIVE! This accomplishment is so dear to my heart because I did not let anything get in the way of my goal. My hard work and determination paid off. I am capable of finding a way!
