Sophie's on the left
Sophie was my exchange student from Germany in 2008-2009.
Here’s how this went in August of 2010, when she was visiting again:
Me: Now that you’re out of high school, what do you want to do?
Sophie: I’m probably going to go to acting school in Germany.
Me: You don’t sound very excited about that. What do you WANT to do?
Sophie: I want to go to Lee Strassberg Acting Institute in LA, but I can’t get in.
Me: Did you apply?
Sophie: No.
Me: Well, you’re right then…you can’t get in. (I’m sure more blabber came out of my mouth after this.)
What happened after that? Sophie got up the next morning (do I remember this correctly?) and got EVERYTHING together to apply. I wrote her a reference letter, but she did EVERYTHING else! She worked on that application for weeks, she went through an interview, she called them relentlessly.
And she got IN! They only take around 60 students a year, and she got IN!
Sophie's website - Tamiamy.com
She moved to LA from Germany by HERSELF, without an apartment, without a car, without knowing a single person. She’s been there ever since (a year and a half!) and she’s already been in 4 feature films. She’s also started an online business (http://tamiamy.com/). She’s a clothing designer and an artist in addition to being an actor. She’s learning to do her own stunts, and she’s writing her own projects.
I told HER how important it was to go for her dreams, over and over, but guess what!? She’s the one who taught me right back! She set a great example of working towards something, of risking everything, to get something you wanted so bad, it scared you to think you might fail.
Sophie is Beyond Beautiful - she's my hero. 🙂
She was an example I kept in my heart and head when I decided to start my journey in Jan, 2011. And it was a beautiful coincidence to listen to her interview today, a day when I decided I am going to jump off the next big life transition cliff tomorrow morning.
Sophie will tell you that I inspired her to do something every day that scared you, but the truth is, that’s what SHE’S done for me.
There’s so much more to our story. We’re scary alike in a million ways, and we’ve helped each through a lot of life events.
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings for both of us, but for today, I want her and everyone else to know:
Sophie, you’re my hero, and not a day goes by that I’m not completely grateful for knowing you!
