American Idol transcends age, gender, ethnicity, everything.

I love being around my friends and my family and spending time with my husband. I like being normal and recharging my batteries, and I feel like I have the coolest job in the world where I get to get on stage and perform and get to do a lot of really amazing things.

Being a part of SKECHERS is exciting. It is such a hip company with a great attitude and image.

All of us gave it all we've got, overcame a whole lot just being on the show and learned a lot about ourselves. We're just normal people trying to do what we love and follow our dreams.

I want people to think of me as a nice person. I really am so blessed. All of this has been a great experience and I thank the American public so much for putting me in this position. I appreciate every second of it.

I love being around my friends and my family and spending time with my husband. I like being normal and recharging my batteries, and I feel like I have the coolest job in the world where I get to get on stage and perform and get to do a lot of really amazing things.

I'm girlie in the sense that I like makeup, but I also love sports and man food.

Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on.

The only other time I've been away from home was when I went to college. And that was just an hour away, so I could always go home if I needed to.

But as far as Twitter, I'll be in a restaurant and I'll get home and somebody tweeted and they talked about what I ordered and what I was wearing. In some cases, that could be dangerous, because you don't want everybody to know where you are every second of every day.