I tried out for Big Brother on Saturday! Got my father to make the 3.5 hour drive down to Boston with me and wait as I stood in line for 1.5 hours for the chance to go on the 14th season of the reality competition show.
This was something I have wanted to do since college. Back then I applied twice online which required sending in a three minute video. I hated doing the video. I wanted to be creative and I felt like it was impossible to get yourself across to someone through a lens. After doing the open casting call, however, I’ve decide to send in a video this week. Let me tell you why.
Saturday, eight of us at a time went in front of a casting producer, yes, eight of us at once. We stood in a semi-circle and were asked, “What would make you a good house guest?” Um. Can you repeat the question, is that it? Well, my main selling point going in was to talk about my competitiveness and prove it by explaining my job: I’m a professional basketball player in Europe. I wanted to talk about that and how I travel and am always adapting but there were three rules to our monologue: no last names, no ages, and no occupations. Awesome, well, I had no idea what to say so I said something about being a Mainer with a competitive nature and an overly honest personality. Totally not memorable at all.
Everyone in the group said they were competitive, which was frustrating me because I couldn’t think of a way to prove that I am WAY more competitive than all of them. I mean, one girl said she was a cheerleader back in high school and THAT was what made her competitive. Are you serious?
As I listened to the seven people that followed me I only thought one other guy would have a chance; he was a short, red-bearded guy with a sarcastic wit and a tattoo of a banana on a Segway he claimed was in his groin area and created one night when he was drunk. The producer, however, did ask us each a different question that has already helped me develop a good speech for my video. The best questions that got me thinking:
What would you do with the $500,000?
What’s something one wouldn’t believe about you just by looking at you?
What would America view you as? (Girl Next Door, the Bitch, the Jock, the Drama Queen, etc.)
First I would buy myself a place to live when I come home from Europe. It’s great to have family and friends welcome me onto their couch with open arms every summer but I want a space of my own, a room of my own, and a place to invite THEM to!
You probably wouldn’t believe by looking at me that I am the first to dance on tables at a club, I have a potty mouth, and I have three tattoos. I got my last one in San Francisco during a cross country trip that took us from Maine to Seattle, down to San Fran, and then back home.
Despite the tattoos and dance moves I would probably be seen as the Girl Next Door. I have average looks, I grew up in a town of less than 2,000 people, I was a three sport athlete, in the band, President of the National Honor Society, and pretty much friends with all different cliques in high school. I also have bitch and jock (obviously) tendencies.
As my Dad and I were driving North up Interstate 95 I realized that I didn’t make much of an impression. All eight of us had a combined 15-20 minutes of time in front of the producer. Unless you are drop dead gorgeous or eight feet tall you probably won’t be memorable among the 125 people that tried out.
The trip wasn’t a waste, though. I got to spend eight hours in my Nissan with my dad… and there aren’t very many people I can successfully do that with. We only turned the radio on once to check the score of the Red Sox game (ugh) and spend the rest of the time talking. He is someone I can tell anything to and I love hearing his opinion on life because he has more experience (24 years more) at it than me.
The trip also gave me some great ideas for my video. And now I’m making this video not because I desperately want to be on the show, no, I’m applying now because I know I performed poorly, I essentially lost a competition. So I need to make this video and apply online in order to redeem myself, you don’t always get second chances to do something right so I am taking advantage. How is that for competitive?
