Ryan Smith

I was watching this documentary on PBS the other night following singers auditioning for the Metropolitan Opera National Council. It was really interesting, and one singer in particular caught my attention.


His name was Ryan Smith, and he was 3o; older than the others auditioning. He explained that he had started training to become an opera singer, ran out of money, went bankrupt, got back on his feet, and decided to give it one last try. You just had to like him; he always had a great big smile and a booming laugh.


At the end of the documentary, Smith was one of the winners! And he went on to the training program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.



A year later, he was dead of lymphoma at 31.





If there's something out there you want to do, go do it. Right now. Because you never know.