» Model City
Sandra Omo stays up all night for Sisqo
I have often asked myself whether there is a limit to how far a model would go for a job. And what is that limit? I have seen models, including me, travel far and wide and give up their jobs and relationships for their career. It is amazing how we often think that we have a limit, but when we look back at the sacrifices we have made, we begin to ask ourselves what that limit really is.
If there are limits to what we’ll do, it’s usually in the area of a career that we are not so passionate about. As a result, we often find ourselves turning down one job offer in order to accept another which interests us more. I might say that I have got a limit. But believe me, the truth is I have gone far beyond my limit for a job I know I am not so passionate about. When it comes to the runway, I can understand not having a limit: I would travel into the desert for these jobs. I used to think it’s only the runway I would go to these lengths for, but I now realise I was wrong.
This week, I travelled the whole night (without any sleep!) to attend a closed casting for Sisqo’s new music video. I used the bus because I knew I had to be back in London at 6am the next morning, to be at work by 8am. Two hours, I presumed, would allow me time to have a shower, have breakfast, and be at work.
“I just could not help congratulating myself and the other models for all their hard work, travelling, spending, keeping in shape, confidence and, above all, constant positive attitude. Next time you see a model, you have just seen one of the bravest people on Earth”
I arrived at the Ocean & Collins nightclub in Oxford at about 11:45pm with other models who I had met on the bus heading for the same casting. As the casting began, I said to myself that I was not going to be tense in any way because tension takes away one’s confidence, making you look most unprofessional. If I had come this far, I might as well have fun. I was not going to spend the time waiting for my turn worrying about how I would do, as most of the girls did. So I mingled around, danced, made new friends, and auditioned when it was my turn.
The audition finished at 3am and we all began our journeys back home. As I chatted with some of the girls, I realised that I had not made the biggest sacrifice to get there. There were models from Coventry, Norwich, Cambridge, Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow. Some had arrived a day before and had hotels booked.
As I travelled back home early that morning, I just could not help congratulating myself and other models for all the hard work, travelling, spending, keeping in shape, confidence, and above all, the constant positive attitude, that is important in our careers.
The outcome of the audition? Is this not what I have been talking about? All these sacrifices with no guarantee that you will get the job. Whether you get the job or not depends on complex things, which most of the time the model has nothing to do with directly. So the audition has been done and I will be be told if I’m on the shortlist in two weeks. However, we have all gone this far just for the opportunity to be considered, and we know it is worth it!
So when next you see a model, boy you have just seen one of the bravest people on Earth.
