CENTERSTAGE you to be in your life, you can’t do it on your own. You’ve got to have people around you, and sometimes [you need] professionals, to help you work through those things.” “In the last few years, I’ve been very focused on my own mental health,” Truitt confided. “Growing up in church and being a pastor’s kid, we didn’t really talk about therapy growing up. It was just ‘Jesus.’ “ I’ve realized that I need Jesus and I need therapy.” “I’ve been able to overcome things I went through in my childhood, things that I wasn’t able to work through until I started [seeing a] therapist. Going photo credit: Zach Dilgard/NBC through a divorce is not easy. Having to own up to your mistakes and the Sergeant Ayanna Bell played by Danielle Mone Truitt with co-star Detective things that you could have done better, Stabler played by Christopher Meloni in “Law & Order: Organized Crime” things that help to make you a better person.” planting the proper seeds and taking the steps to “I’m so proud of the woman that I am today, and it’s get there. And then, when things get tough, you because I took responsibility for myself, and I got have to hang in there.” help.” Amen, Sister Truitt! Thanks for repping Sacramento As we wrapped up our talk, I wondered whether so well in Hollywood! We’ll see you at the Emmys Truitt had for advice for a young person who might and the Oscars soon! n be dreaming a dream that was bigger than their Get tickets to see Truitt in “3 Black Girl Blues” at the B Street environment might be able to support. I wondered Theater. Get information on the show at BStreetTheatre.org. about the girls — and boys — growing up today in South Sac, and pondered whether Truitt might have Michael P Coleman is a Sacramento-based freelance writer, video a word of encouragement for them. & podcast producer and host, and public speaker. Connect with Truitt replied with a timbre — and displayed a mettle — that would have made her parents - and especially her pastor father — very proud.
him at MichaelPColeman.com.
“You will go as far as you believe that you can go,” Truitt exclaimed. “Half of the time, people are successful because they didn’t give up. I wanted to quit so many times, and I just didn’t, and the right opportunity came. If I had quit, years ago, I wouldn’t be on “Law & Order” right now.” “Everything you need is already inside of you,” Truitt said, almost as if God had given her the message in the spur of the moment. “It’s like an apple seed. There’s already an apple tree inside of the seed. You just have to plant the seed in the ground, and that tree will spring forth.” “Everything you want to be and achieve in your life is already inside of you,” Truitt added. “It’s just about
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