My friend Issa is one of the finalists!

You may have heard her on the radio! Yes, she’s DJ Issa on the “Wake Up Show” / “The Men’s Room” of Mellow 94.7.  She wrote an open letter to all of you stating the reasons why she wanted so much to be the next Ambassadress of MYX.  (By ambassadress I mean VJ :P)

So please guys, would really appreciate if you vote for DJ Issa to be the next MYX VJ! yaye!

TO VOTE FOR DJ ISSA DO THIS:

Key in MYXVJ (space) 4 and send it to 2366.

You can vote as many times as you want/can.

Here are the contents of her open letter:

“Hi! This is ***** ****** from MYX. Please make yourself available on May 31 2PM and proceed to Rm. 1302 ELJ Building, ABS-CBN. This is regarding the MYX VJ Search. We trust that is will remain confidential at this time. Please Acknowledge. Thank You.”

And this is how I found out that I was one of the Top 12 Finalists for the 2010 MYX VJ Search. That one cryptic text message announced the start of something so big that it will probably change my life.

I still can’t believe it.

I auditioned on May 14. That was a Friday – their second day for try-outs. I was in there at 10AM on the dot with just a handful of other people. Chloe had swapped timeslots with me that day because she had to host an event at night so it left me pretty much free to head on over to ABS-CBN.

I told next to nobody of my plans. I suppose I was afraid of the shame of rejection in case I didn’t get a callback. I mean, I do host for a living – I should know what I’m doing. “SHOULD” being keyword in that sentence.

I sincerely felt my heart was going to fall out of my ass the whole time. I was so nervous. Thank God I made friends in the line (yes people, THIS is where I “picked up” Jordan Sparkles) because it took my mind off things… slightly. And thank GOD I was number 9 because 9 is my favorite number and that means I didn’t have to wait for too long.

I totally blabbered through my whole audition. If you can imagine it, I talk about a zillion times more when I’m nervous. I felt like I was making only about 5% sense. I tripped up a few good times, attempted to make pa-cute upon every opportunity and even performed some unnecessary acrobatics. They must’ve thought I was a freak of nature.

The whole thing felt surreal. It was so very different from when I was trying out for radio. Radio was always like an extension of myself – I just naturally fell into place. TV though, was like… foreign territory – I felt like I had to wear army fatigues and combat boots.

I couldn’t help worrying about what I looked like on screen. I couldn’t keep my eyes on the camera. I felt like I was sweating like a pig.

I came out with no expectations at all – just the knowledge that even though I made a complete fool out of myself, at least… I was myself. So when I got that fateful text message, I was literally jumping up and down, screaming my lungs out like an idiot.

I mean, GOD – around this time just two years ago I was a Junior Nursing student, resigned to the fact that I was going to fly to the States after graduation and practice a profession I had no zeal for whatsoever. Now I’m a radio DJ and a VJ finalist for the #1 music channel in the country.

My favorite music teacher and chorale instructor back in highschool once told me that there’s no hiding from passion – that it would keep popping up in your life until you couldn’t ignore it anymore. I am living proof of that.

I knew what passion was when I fell inlove with music at the age of 3 and I would keep making my mom play Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album over and over again. I knew passion when I got up on stage for the first time and performed a song I helped write when I was 15. I knew passion when I first turned on my mic last year and reached out through the airwaves to speak to an unknown number of listeners.

For some people, their purpose in the world is to save lives, lead others or keep the peace. I think my purpose is simpler: I just want to make you smile. I know that’s cliché and maybe it sounds fake but I assure you, it’s completely true. I love talking and I love music but I especially love the fact that when I put those two together, I somehow brighten up somebody else’s day.

A lot of people might think that being a VJ is cool because you get to be on TV. To me, it’s always been so much more than that. In the end, I think I should be the next MYX VJ because aside from the fact that I’m 100% passionate about it, I also think I represent all the other people out there whose life was mapped out for them but their heart told them to follow a different path. I’m just a girl with a dream. I hope you help me make it come true.

Love,

Issa