"You're good, but not great."

I'm a singer.

I've been singing since third grade, and I'm pursuing a career in vocal music education after high school.

In eighth grade, I was dating my first boyfriend. He and I had met in choir class. One day at the end of the year, we were texting, just speculating about high school and all, and got up the courage to ask him whether or not he thought I would make the top choir in high school.

I'll never forget his response.

"Maybe. I mean you're good, but not great, so I really don't know." 

It wasn't just the fact that he was supposed to be a supportive boyfriend to me and he wasn't, but he basically shot down everything I loved and believed about myself.

I broke up with him a few months later. 

Two years after that, I finally started to take voice lessons. The next year, I finally made it into the top choir, as a junior.

This year, I'm auditioning for six colleges, and I still haven't forgotten what he said to me when I was fourteen.

I don't know if I'm good enough. No matter how much my private lesson teacher reaffirms that I am good and I am ready to sing in college, I can't believe her.