The Little Duckling, As told by Christy Chilton

At the risk of sounding egotistical or vain, I'm often amused at the compliments I receive regarding my appearance, as I still see the image of my five year old self, a shy, sweet, nerdy little girl who collected baseball cards, matchbox cars and dreamed of being either She-ra or Wonder Woman.

The same little girl who chose to spend her summer vacation at camp alone, hunched over a cafeteria table diligently copying each word and its definition from the 800+ pages of Merriam Webster Children's Dictionary, for both the fun of it and knowledge she'd acquire.

I didn't have many friends, if any, come to think of it, I do remember another little girl joining me for a day that Summer, as obviously, she had no friends at the camp and must have been quite bored.

We began talking and at one point, I reassured her with my knowledge of the fact that since we were “Nerdy or Ugly Ducklings” as young girls, then inevitably, we were going to grow up to be beautiful swans, because as I understood it, that was just the way things worked, Thank you Hans Christian Andersen.

Excited at the possibility of this being true, she questioned my theory for certainty and I can still feel the unwavering conviction I felt in that moment, as I reaffirmed the truth in my fairy tale logic.

The next year ,still feeling like that nerdy little duckling, I gave my debut performance in front of hundreds on stage at the St Pete Times Forum... Naturally, I loved every minute of it and I have continued to love the process & each project that I've been a part of for the past twenty some odd years now.  I'm not sure that I'll ever completely stop feeling a bit like that sweet, nerdy little duckling,  and I'm not sure that I'd ever want to. One thing I am certain of,however, is the fact that beauty comes from within and from absolutely nowhere else. The outer appearance always evolves into a reflection of what lies within.

Funny how things turn out