Life Abroad: Former Miss Kenya Speaks of Her Struggle to Make Ends Meet by Not Gold-Digging as is the Popular Belief
Beauty queen and singer, Rachel Marete, has spoken for the first time about how she managed to penetrate the impossible and highly competitive Hollywood. There have been rumours floating around how she had to drop her pants to make ends meet in The States.
She says;
I wanna share with you, my dear Facebook friends, how I make my bread and butter. You see, for those of us who are courageous enough to pack our bags and leave home behind to join the rat race that is Hollywood, we come to realize very quickly that there’s millions of us already here and coming in daily. That means it’s very hard to make it here. Though most of us are very talented, the sad reality is that only 1% of 1% of us will make it. For that reason, they say every year that 1 million hopefuls come to Hollywood and that by the end of that year only one percent of that million remains and the cycle continues. Of the remaining 1% only 1% of us will get to see our names in the lights. Still for those of us bold enough to remain starving and dreaming here, the struggle is real! Not only do you have to chase your dreams, the famous American bills never stop coming in. Rent, insurance, phone bills, food, gas, etc then add on to that the expenses that come with chasing the dream: headshots, online submitting breakdown site fees, reels, etc (all before you catch the eye of any agent worth his weight and pull) plus time to do it all while still finding a way not to completely starve and be homeless.
A few lucky buggers in our midst come from rich families where daddy simply says something like, “well child, here is a million dollars! Go to Hollywood and follow your dreams! If that doesn’t work out, just come back and daddy will help find another job you like or make you CEO of the family business”. Sigh… At least that’s how I picture it. How we all wish we were them! Then, since this job attracts A LOT of good looking people, many choose to go the find me a sugar daddy or sugar momma to fund my dream chasing route (which is another rat race in itself around here). Unfortunately for those, like me, who are unwilling to sell our souls to get ahead, we have no choice but to juggle the dream chasing with full time jobs. That’s where the famous waitressing jobs of Hollywood come in! Guys, you will be surprised how competitive the waitress job market is around here! It’s a job fought for and actually hard to find! You have to be a highly qualified/ experienced one to get in to the right places where tips are big enough to pay bills and afford head shots. It’s funny how here, to be a waitress you actually have to pay your dues at crappy establishments first, sometimes for years, to get into the “big leagues”. Then when you finally do, you can get tips from stars who are empathetic and once were where you are (case in point, Brad Pitt was once one of the many waiters of Hollywood chasing dreams of stardom that made it out!). No sir/ madam. No one laughs at waiters here! Not only can they spit in your food if you piss them off, but they might also be the next George Clooney or Angela Basset!
Now this is why I value education. Thanks to mine, I haven’t had to be a waitress… yet (knock on wood). The challenge has always been to find the perfect “bills job” that you don’t absolutely hate but that also IS NOT a 9-5 because everyone knows most of the great auditions are on weekdays on those very same hours. It’s not unusual for us to go from job to job because of this. “Scheduling issues”, we call it. Well for me, I’ve been lucky to hold down good jobs. My favorite one, before my current one, was when I was an Account Executive for Transit TV (I acquired advertisers for the channel) and a news anchor for the station as well. It was perfect and also my first job in Hollywood. I had to give that up for an awesome opportunity at SKY TV where I got my own TV show; V-Style. I sold high end jewelry, watches and fashion over the air at bargain prices to my viewers and it broadcast live from LA to Europe. In between and during these two jobs I was also juggling side TV gigs wherever I could get them. Hey, build that resume! Anyway, back to the SKY TV job. This was it! I had made it to the big leagues!! It was only going to be higher and higher up from here. I could kiss the hustling struggle good bye… At least that’s what I thought… UNTIL MY SHOW GOT CANCELED SIX MONTHS LATER! Womp womp! I was devastated. I plunged deep into depression. Sad part is at first I wasn’t aware of what was happening. I just knew that when the sun came up, I did not want to get out of bed. Then there was also this new thing where when I got upset or worried, I’d run out of breath and struggle to breathe again. I came to find out that these were called, drum roll please, and panic attacks! Yes, I became one of those people. I always said before that since we do not even have a word for depression in African languages, it was just some thought up disease that crazy westerners had made up. I know better now. I was like “what’s the point? I’m never gonna make it!”. Again, not unusual at all in this tough, cold industry.
Click HERE for part II
