real life

What would make anyone turn down a trip to NYC with Ricky Martin?

There was one Team Ricky member who didn’t get on the flight to NYC with her mentor. And here’s why.

Here’s a list of things I would rather do than get on a flight to New York with Ricky Martin:

1.

2.

3. Nope, I’ve got nothing.

Because. New York City. Ricky Martin.

But for The Voice contestant Sabrina Batshon, 29, it was a trip just she couldn’t make.

Sabrina is on Ricky’s team on The Voice, and as a big, shiny gift for making it that far, Ricky’s favourites all got flown to New York to rehearse and get wined and dined by the man himself.

The rest of Team Ricky at the airport, but Sabrina can't get on the plane.

But Sabrina is afraid of flying. And despite having an incredible voice, despite having been striving for a career in the music industry for years (she was on Australian Idol in 2009), despite having overcome anxiety, agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive disorder to be on the reality show's best team (by about a million miles), getting on that plane was a step too far for Sabrina.

As someone who does not suffer from anxiety, I have lots of compassion for this terrible dilemma, but no understanding. In my ignorant brain, I'm thinking, "Just knock me out, strap me to the seat, whatever, it's RICKY MARTIN!"

But for Sabrina, it's so serious she is in counselling. Because, let's face it, flying is an important part of being the kind of international singing sensation she's hoping to be, post-Ricky.

Sabrina on stage last night.

“Now my focus is on making the next opportunity possible,” she says, as Qantas (one of the show's sponsors, handily) announces they've given her free access to their Fearless Flying course. “Just by being given the opportunity to be on this show is enough of an incentive to try to manage this phobia so that next time I don’t have to be saying goodbye, I’ll be saying, ‘Let’s go.’"

Here's hoping, Sabrina. Because last night, despite the anxiety, despite missing out on chowing down on burgers with Ricky on Broadway, she was AMAZING singing Sia's Chandelier.

Amazing.

Is there anything in your life that you are so afraid of it would hold you back from doing something you had always dreamed of doing?