Today we’d like to introduce you to Ebba Ann Pellegrino.
Hi Ebba Ann, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
When I was younger, I always had this feeling that performing on a stage was my gift and it was something that I knew that I had to pursue. I grew up in a small town in Rhode Island where not everyone leaves their hometown and where not everyone pursues the talents that they may have. In high school, I performed in the musicals, I was a part of the chorus department, and while it was stressful in many points of my life, I loved it. I love singing, it is the one thing that makes me feel at peace with myself, it’s a stress reliever. At the end of my junior year, going into senior year, I got the acceptance letter into AMDA LA and I couldn’t be more ecstatic for myself. I worked so hard to get to that point in my life and there were even times when I didn’t believe that I could do it but I did. When it came to that time of moving across the country, into a complete new city, 2000 miles away from home, I was terrified but I felt empowered. I wanted to make my family, my friends, and even my hometown proud; I wanted them to know that you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish by giving it your all. The first few months were hard, it was stressful time with classes and all of the practice that I was putting into it. However, I had the best of roommates that anyone could ever ask for and I met so many amazing people that I knew I would be friends with for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, in January of 2022, I had a devastating family emergency that made me want to rethink all of my life goals. I started becoming more negative within myself and my performances, I started hated everything that I was pursuing. I was so down to the point where the one thing that I truly loved, the one thing that made me the happiest, I started to hate. It took a year for me to decide, and it was an ongoing battle between if I wanted to quit or keep going, but then I reached the conclusion that it was time for me to go home and be with my family. Going back home to Rhode Island, which was the hardest thing that I could have done, was also the best thing that I could have done. I felt more at peace, I felt more calm knowing that I was in the same area has my family, especially after everything that we had went through, I was able to see life from a different perspective. Ever since I left LA in 2023, I have had this feeling of loss, of like something is missing, and while there was a person actually missing for the rest of my life, it was more of a place that felt missing. These past few years, I have visited, I have seen my friends, I have experienced all of the same things that I once did when I first moved out there but it felt different because I was no longer living there, it wasn’t my home anymore. In this exact moment, I am not in LA, Im not where I have always wanted to be, however, I am at the school that I have always wanted to be but for a different reason. As of right now, I am studying in becoming an elementary school teacher at Providence College. It is something that I have always wanted ever since I was kid but not to become a teacher, but to perform. I walk around this campus and look back on my life from a few years ago and I think to myself “What if I just stayed?” “What if I didn’t lose the most important person in my life?” “What if I didn’t lose my passion?” While these thoughts haunt me everyday, I am happy but I am also lost because I am not doing the number one thing that truly makes up who I am: singing. I recently just visited my past roommates from AMDA and they inspire me everyday because they are my example to never give up, they give me hope. Being back in LA, even if it was for a few days, made me realize that I want to go back, I want to pursue what I once was pursuing, I want to live my dream again. I know that one day, once I get my diploma and graduate college, I will end up back in my home town, pursuing my dream that I once had ever since I was a little girl.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road, I won’t lie. My first few months in LA were successful; I was singing, I was visiting all of the amazing points within LA, I wad becoming an adult. However, in January of 2022 I lost my brother and my grandmother, in the span of three weeks of each other, and then a year later, in February of 2023, I got the call that my nephew had gotten cancer for the second time. That whole year span was made me realize that I was not doing well on my own and I had to move back home. I lost my touch of performing, I lost my true self, I lost my happiness.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
A few years ago, I was pursuing in performing, more specifically Musical Theater. I loved it, I was beyond proud of who I came to be because that was who I was. Performing on a stage was the definition of who I was. Unfortunately, I had some family emergencies and had to change my perspective in life. As of right now, I am studying to become a elementary school teacher and while it is not the career that I was planning for my whole life, it is something that I still love and am proud of. I am proud that I was able to live my dreams in LA, I proud that I was able to express my talents to others who I know would listen, I am all around just proud of myself and who I have came to be. While I am not performing anymore, I am teaching, which is something that I also love to do. I love to make a difference for children, I love being the one that they look up to when they are younger, it is so uplifting and wholesome. I am known for performing, I am known for my singing abilities and I had to one day put them to use again.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Some qualities/characteristics that are most important for my success is being able to be flexible with anything that comes my way, being able to be giving a task in the moment and fulfill it, being able to talk to others and be my joyful self, being able to teach others new ideas and concepts, being able to not feel threatened or scared to do anything that I am putting my mind to, and also being able to pursue what I love, especially in the context of singing. My voice is the one quality that I can always depend because it is something that I know that I will always have and will never lose.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ebba.ann/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebba.pellegrino/?viewas=&should_open_composer=false&show_switched_toast=false&show_invite_to_follow=false&show_switched_tooltip=false&show_podcast_settings=false&show_community_review_changes=false&show_community_rollback=false&show_follower_visibility_disclosure=false&bypass_exit_warning=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ebbaannpellegrino5291
Image Credits
The pictures of me on stage, in the musicals, were done by Dan Hall from Stonington, Connecticut
