Briana Oru

Born and raised in Baltimore,MD I've always had big dreams and aspirations to become someone others like myself can look up to or watch and say, "If she can do it I definitely can!". As a self AND family proclaimed nerdy, geeky, introvert with no life, I've always felt it pretty difficult to find my place in this world. I love the thought of entertaining, yet I hate being the center of attention. I love reading and writing yet I fear people's opinions of me, whatever they might be. So because of that, I kind of shy away from posting any of my work online, because of my fear of being judged and paranoia that someone might actually take my work and claim it as their own. Not to sound arrogant but...I'm pretty good. But to me, not good enough to share my work with strangers. That is until a few months ago where I finally made a blog on WordPress and posted a few opinions on certain topics, as well as a Supernatural fan-fic and a couple of my own scenes that I had written. Also, I just published my first Book Review which is extremely exciting. But through all of that I'm still pushing to make it in entertainment as well as struggling as a freelance writer. When I was a kid I went to audition for the Art School in downtown Baltimore and while waiting for my last audition to begin I spoke with a worker there whose nephew was an actor on The Wire at the time. Needless to say I was extremely excited because I had a huge crush on the guy and here I am meeting his aunt. I'm thinking this lady is going to invite me over to her place, introduce me to her nephew, he's going to fall in love with me and then we're going to live happily-ever-after with this awesome story of how we met. I was ready! So I spoke to her for a moment and told her about my goals and dreams, and do you know what this woman told me? At the time I believe I was 12 or 13 so I'm not as secure as a person. But this grown woman told me that I had "too many dreams" and laughed at me...can you believe that? So needless to say I was bummed for the rest of the day. I went to my last audition which was a singing audition and blew it. Not because I was upset about this lady's comment and therefore doubting everything I believed in but...because I can't sing. Yes, I went to an audition and left the talent somewhere, where I have yet to find it. But I was a kid who wanted to do just about everything so I went for it, I actually went through an Alicia Keys stage which I will not speak on right now because I'm still a little ashamed. Anyways, here I'am eight years later and I still have my huge dreams of being just about everything, besides a singer, I've learned my lesson. But I'm afraid I still doubt my talents and aspirations because after that lady's comment I started hearing it more and more throughout the years so of course after a while you begin to believe it and think, "Am I being realistic?" But then I think of one of my favorite quotes, "If your dreams don't terrify you, they aren't big enough." My dreams scare the HECK out of me so I'm doing something right. Now I just have to build a stronger armor and go for everything I want and to heck with what people might think. So I'm going for it. And you should too!

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