The 58th Grammy Awards were held on the night of Monday, February 15, 2016 at the Staple’s Center in Los Angeles.  Some of the night’s biggest winners included familiar faces such as Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, and Justin Bieber. But who would have thought that a small town girl from Nebraska stood on that stage for the second time that night?

Julia Scozzafava is a Gering native who is a member of the Kansas City Chorale, which won a 2016 Grammy for “Best Choral Performance.” This isn’t the Kansas City Chorale’s first time on the Grammy stage; they also won an award three years ago. This year’s Grammy was won because of their performance of the Rachmaninoff “All Night Vigil,” in which Scozzafava was the featured Alto Soloist.

Scozzafava says she got the music “bug” at an early age from a past music teacher named Kathy Propp. She lived in Gering through her middle school years, and eventually continued her musical studies at the University of Wyoming.

Many young people watch the Grammy’s, or award shows like it, every single year. Some of those children watch with admiration as they wish it could be them on that stage. Sadly, some of the kids may not think they’re good enough. Maybe they think they don’t have enough talent, or they don’t have what it takes to make their dreams come true. Some may even think that they have a disadvantage being from a small town; that they’ll never be noticed. Julia Scozzafava is a perfect example of small town dreams coming true. If one works hard enough nothing is impossible.

Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech said it best:“I want to say to the young women out there: there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.” Although this message was aimed at the young women in the industry, it’s a good lesson for anyone with any kind of a goal: man or woman, young or old, Grammy nominee or not. Even people like us way out here in a small town, that no one knows about, have dreams, and they can come true, no matter what other people say.