Contestant Blogs
This Week's Contestant
Caitlin B.
| Theme: | Wheel Loves L.A. |
|---|---|
| Hometown: | Annandale, NJ |
| Week of: | 09-12-2011 |
POSTED 9-2
My journey to be a contest on Wheel of Fortune began long before I stepped into the audition room. For as long as I can remember, my family would eat dinner while watching Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. I'm extremely competitive, so while my dad would always rule at Jeopardy! (which I accredited to his age serving as a major advantage) I found that Wheel of Fortune put us on a more level playing field, and it was my mission to prove to him that I was the better player. After years of watching, I began to solve the puzzles faster and faster, shouting out the answers way before any of the contestants did (much to my dad's dismay: "What's the point of watching if you're just going to solve them in the first ten seconds?!" he'd often grunt). But soon my parents started convincing me that I really had a knack for it and should try to get on the show, which is when I decided this would be my new life goal.
In fact, I remember in school one day we were all asked to share our life goals with the class. My response, "to be on Wheel of Fortune" definitely got some laughs and eye rolls, especially versus those wanting to be a doctor or lawyer, but at the time, it was the one thing I knew for sure I wanted to accomplish. So I began applying online, entering my name into the general contestants pool again and again over the course of about ten years. When finally, I received an email that I had been selected for an audition! I dropped everything and immediately started preparing for it... what I would wear, what I would say, what I would tell work, etc. I stayed up for hours on end playing the online version of the show and practiced my answer to the inevitable "tell us a little more about yourself" question countless times in the mirror. All of which must have paid off, because round after round of cuts I kept getting called back! Finally, after it got down to about ten finalists they said they would either call us in a week or send us a letter in thirty days if we were chosen to be on the show, otherwise, we were probably not selected.
A week went by... no call. Then thirty days went by.... no letter. I was SURE that they had picked me, so this was a serious disappointment. I moped around for the next few days until exactly one week and thirty days after the audition, when a small envelope with "Wheel of Fortune" in the return address field arrived in the mail. I was nervous because of its sizethinking in the college acceptance letter mentality that small envelopes equal rejectionbut as I opened the letter and saw "CONGRATULATIONS" in big bold letters, I realized that this was it! I started screaming and crying and called everyone I knew to tell them the good news! It was the day I had waited for and I knew it was only a matter of time! I'm laughing to myself a bit now at how serious I took everything, but it paid off in the end, because being on the show was the best experience of my life! And if it wasn't for that sincere belief that I would make it happen and that it was something I knew I wanted, then I think I would have given up a long time ago! Tune in to see me spin on Thursday, September 15th!