(CIRCA 2003)

Tough Enough 3 was a awesome experience for me. I met determined and genuinely kind people who shared the same aspirations. Many of them I still talk to. AND best of all, I spent the week learning from Ivory, Bill DeMott and Al Snow. They were great!!! It was a wonderful experience to work around them and to learn from them. 

People didn’t see the training they made everyone do that week. It was grueling. I’m sure they tried their best to make people quit. What was seen on TV was very short. The days were long and it lasted longer than showed. But all that made me realize how far I can make my body go physically. We were sore and cramping at the end of the week and we rode a bike up a mountain! A MOUNTAIN!!!! For 2.5 miles and then ran for 2 miles. There are people who do that, but think about it, if you never trained for it and if you have trained for 3 days prior, 8 hours a day, the ride wouldn’t be a walk in the park. I was so proud to have made it through that week. I felt like I could accomplish anything after that. That if I ever said no, I can’t when it comes to training, I could just remember that week and think, “I certainly can!”

I may not agree with certain things about TE3 but understand why things went the way they did. I know that things happen for a reason and I can’t complain. Look how far I made it! Look what I got to do! I wouldn’t trade that week for anything. I went home more driven and inspired.

I strongly believe that it was meant for me to take a different direction to make it in this business. Sure it would have been great to spend all that time with the WWE trainers and to do those awesome workouts that would push me to my limits physically….. but this way, when I do reach my goal, it will be on my own. That moment will be so much more gratifying, because I made it there when all the odds were against me. Through my own hard work and my talent. I definitely think this is the road for me.

- Melina