Do you have something that you have dreamed about doing your entire life? Not just a general wish or hope… but a specific moment you think about, one that you picture so perfectly in your mind every night before you go to bed? You drift off to sleep, and for a second, when you can’t tell if you’re dreaming or still awake, this once distant fantasy somehow becomes a reality. However, the next morning you wake up to the harsh truth. You thought you were there… but you’re not even close.
I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I have been a singer my whole life, and every night I have wished for this culminating moment in my career: performing a stadium show in front of thousands of people… all there to see me. Ideally I would be here saying that I have accomplished this goal, but that’s not the case today. I’m not quite there yet…. but I am proud to say, I just got a heck of A LOT closer. A few weeks ago, I performed at the KISS 2010 concert in Boston. Yes… A STADIUM SHOW!!! My first stadium show to be exact, and it was in front of 20,000 people.
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I was opening for artists like Ke$ha, Jason Derulo, Adam Lambert, and Kris Allen, so it’s safe to say the entire audience wasn’t there to see me. Nevertheless, it was a turning point in my career… in my life. I have believed in myself all along, but, for the first time, I realized that I could actually do this; it became real. One fifteen minute performance, and everything changed. The next thing I knew, I was being swarmed by people asking for autographs and pictures. Security actually had to ask people to return to their seats.
It was surreal. Not many people get to experience such an instantaneous change like that. I relished in that moment. I drank every second in… because it really is all about the journey. Yes, I have this one goal in my head at all times, and I could easily go about my life being miserable and unsatisfied until I have accomplished it, but what good would that do? If there is one thing I have learned in this business it is that nothing comes easily, so celebrate the small victories. It has been a long hard road getting to this point in my career, and I still have a long way to go till I’m headlining a tour and selling out arenas. However, I am one GIANT step closer, and I will keep pushing forward no matter what obstacles I come across.
I am sure I have a lot of tears in my future (just the nature of the business)… but if I broke down every time someone told me ‘no’, then I would have been out of the game a long time ago. Being an independent artist, I really shouldn’t have even made it this far. So, whenever I feel discouraged I look back and find solace in my ‘small victories’ because they remind me that hard work WILL eventually pay off. Whether your triumphs come frequently or dreadfully far apart, you are still making progress, and that’s what matters. No one said it would be easy. Those low points we all experience define our journey… and, honestly, they make the high points that much more rewarding. The shadow proves the sunshine….. and for me, the sun was a’shining that day in Boston.
-Samantha Marq
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