As she stepped up to star on The Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky was aware that she was on a rose-lined road that could lead to love -- or that it could lead to Heartbreak Hotel.
With countless couples trying and failing before her -- not to mention her tearful goodbye to Jake Pavelka on The Bachelor -- Ali felt that she had a secret weapon for finding romance that might break the reality show curse.
"I just had faith in myself," she told PEOPLE at the Express Matt Leinart Foundation Celebrity Bowl in Los Angeles on Thursday. "I had faith that it would work and if I did end up with someone, I would continue to have that faith. And if I didn't, I would still have that faith in myself."
But with Jake and Vienna Girardi's relationship falling apart (literally) during one of her Bachelorette episodes, surely that faith was tested.
"That's one relationship, and my journey is a completely different journey," she said. "Everyone is different. Did I go in knowing that I may not end up with someone? Of course I did. I knew that it was a strong possibility."
And accepting that as a possibility has guided her journey on The Bachelorette. "People think that I'm so insecure because I questioned the guys so intensely," Ali said. "I wanted to be smart and question them and ask them, 'Do you like me for me, the girl from little Williamstown? Or do you like me just because I'm The Bachelorette?' I had to decipher what guys were there for me and what guys were there for The Bachelorette." –Reagan Alexander
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