She started watching the show with her grandparents when she was only three.
ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman is getting her chance to spin the wheel on the “Wheel of Fortune,” a moment she said is a dream come true.
11Alive caught up with Jessica Washington at the airport where she works in procurement and innovation.
“You’re just floating through the moment you look back and you’re like ‘wow I actually lived out my dream,’” Washington said.
She started watching the show with her grandparents when she was only three.
“I got really, really good and of course you go off to college that’s old school -You’re not watching things like that anymore and then I got back into it,” she added.
Washington was lucky enough to apply online and get picked just two weeks later, flying out to LA in early August for the shoot.
She said that the other contestants became her friends, and Pat Sajak and Vanna White were just as nice as she always imagined.
“Super cool- exactly like the show! Charismatic, engaging -you just feel safe and comfortable,” Washington described.
But, the biggest surprise? Washington said that was how heavy the wheel itself was.
“It’s the weight of the wheel, so you’re literally pulling and you’re pushing, so you have to be careful. I almost broke my wrist,” she said.
Washington added that the hardest part so far has been keeping how she did under wraps, noting there are “a lot of confidential documents saying you just got to keep that secret.”
Thankfully, she has and said she’s eternally grateful for the experience, and thanks her grandparents for setting it in motion years ago.
“They would just be smiling and so impressed and amazed…for them I wouldn’t be there,” said Washington.
Now, after making it on the show, she said she wishes she could give her younger self a message: “Girl, you can go on Wheel of Fortune! You just need to persevere, so if you say you’re going to do something -keep chasing that dream and do it.”
You can watch Washington on Wheel of Fortune and find out how she did at 7 p.m. on 11Alive.
