How I Manifested Riley

When I was a teenager, I had two loves, dance and Riley Smith.  Dance was the way I controlled my emotions and Riley was a heartthrob, know at the time for Motocrossed, one of those fantastic Disney original movies.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch this baby.  It will delight you for 90 minutes!

 When I was 15, I spent part of the summer in New York City, trying to become a model. As I prepared for the trip, I spent all my time thinking of one thing.  No, not that I was going get some big modeling contract or dominate my auditions for movie roles. No, I was convinced that I would meet Riley Smith in New York City.  Now, I had no idea if he would be in New York, I was just convinced that he would be and I would meet him.  I didn’t know how it would happen, I just believed that it would.  Once I got on the plane, I was just as excited to get to the city as I was to see how I would meet Riley.  Now please keep in mind, this was the year 2000, The Secret hadn’t been published, but the methods used in the book were pretty much the way I lived.  I just believed good things would happen to me and they always did. (Unfortunately, as I got older, I got skeptical and complacent.  More on that later)

The first shot I actually had taped to a notebook in high school, the second one is more recent

About a week had gone by.  I had been on several castings, done some cold reads and met a few promising agents, but nothing was really panning out.  It was such an incredible time for growth for me.  It was the first time I was really on my own.  My family was back in Arizona and I was being watched by chaperones that were responsible for about 25 kids, ages 13-20.  For the sake of my parents, I won’t tell you about all the things I got away with while I was there.  Let’s just say thank goodness I was an inherently good kid or I could have gotten into a lot of trouble.

The main purpose of my trip was to compete in the IMTA competition.  My modeling and acting instructors told me this was my chance to make it big.  Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher and Josh Duhmel were discovered there- I could be next! I did okay in the competitions and placed for a few things. I was so busy, I didn’t have time to think about Riley. 

One night, I headed to the hotel restaurant to grab dinner with a friend.  As the elevator came to a halt on the restaurant floor, I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach. No, it wasn’t that feeling where your stomach jumps into your throat because the elevator is going too fast. This was it, it was about to happen.  I almost peed my pants I was so excited. (Wouldn’t that have been embarrassing?)  A huge smile grew on my face and I told my friend, “We are going to meet Riley Smith here!”  She knew of my obsession and just kind of laughed at me.  Sure enough, we rounded the corner and there he was.  He was sitting near the bar with his agents and manager.  My friends jaw dropped. I was not fazed. After all, I knew it would happen.  As his managers were getting up, I walked right up to his table and said hello.  He stayed while we ate dinner.  We talked about how he got to where he was in his career, what his plans were in the future, what my plans were (ah, meet you, yeah that’s about all I planned) and New York City.  At the end of dinner I told him there was no way my friends back home would believe me, so he gave me his autograph and posed for a picture.

 I looked everywhere for the picture of him and I together.  I think it is hiding somewhere in my photo box that is being stored right now.  If I find it, I will definitely post it at a later date!

That trip was filled with a lot of cool experiences, including being serenaded by Nickel Creek in a stairwell before they went to their performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  It wasn’t until today that I really thought back on how “lucky” I was. 

I always considered myself to be a “lucky” girl.  Whenever I thought of something I really wanted, I got it.  It just seemed to happen for me.  I have spent a lot of time over the last couple years, thinking of that lucky girl as naïve. Had the grown up version of me run out of luck because I spent it all on frivolous things as an adolescent.  After struggling to find happiness with all this self-inflicted negativity, I decided to read The Secret. 

 I only got a couple chapters in before I realized, that the younger version of me was not naïve at all.  She knew what she wanted, she thanked a higher power in advance for bringing it, she envisioned herself happy and receiving whatever she wanted and she believed whole-heartedly that everything would turn out the way she expected.  She wasn’t naïve at all.  She wasn’t jaded by the negativity the world imposes upon us.  She was happy and she believed she always would be.