American Idol's Syesha Mercado's exit interview...

Syesha Mercado won't be competing for the title of "American Idol" next week but on Thursday, she had to be the happiest third-place finisher in the show's history. Week after week this dynamic performer dodged the elimination bullet until it was just her - the underdog - and favorites David Archuleta and David Cook left standing.

I had to know how she handled being among the bottom three vote-getters so many times with such poise and wondered if she had her bags packed each and every results show day.

"Every week is new. And I never packed my bag," she said. "They told us, 'You got to pack your bags.' I'm like, 'I'm not packing my bags because I don't want to go home yet. I'm not ready.' So I think if you want something, it's going to happen for you. If you want to be top three, you're going to get top three. If you want to win, you're going to win. Whoever is the most passionate, they're going to win. Whichever David's the most passionate, they're going to win. So every week, like I said, I set a goal, and I just wasn't ready to go home. I didn't pack my bags because I wasn't ready."

Syesha told me she dealt with the pressure by just talking to her family a lot and said they really helped her stay strong.

"I tried my best to pray before every performance and get that positive energy flowing and hold everybody's hand and be like, "Burst of energy and positivity." I just tried to clear my mind. You become stronger and stronger. And just being there, I just think I got a lot stronger every week.

Judges Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell thought Syesha had chosen poorly by singing the Peggy Lee song "Fever" on Tuesday night believing a powerful show-stopper would have left a stronger impression among voters.

She didn't come out and say she regretted singing the song but she did tell me she did the best she could on that number.

"You can't do everything. So I made up in my mind that I wanted to do a song that was performance-driven, so that's why I did that," she explained. "I had other choices in mind, but I couldn't do them, so - maybe if I had a chance to do them, I wouldn't have got that comment, but you go with the flow. If you can't do something, you do something else. You just work with that. So I did that song, and I have no regrets. It works out the way it was supposed to work out."

So what is next for this performing dynamo who will most certainly be one of the most popular draws on the "American Idol" tour this summer?

"Well, as I tell people, I want to do everything, and I'm really goal-oriented, so I know that whatever goal I set, it can be accomplished, whether it's within a year span or whatever, ten year(s)," she said. "So I want to make an album. I want to star in a film. I want to do Broadway. I want to open up an organic restaurant, and like a lupus foundation, homeless foundation. It just depends on what comes first, but I have goals that I want to do, and I write them down and going to continue to look at them. Basically, whatever opportunity comes first and what's the best career move for me, that's pretty much what's going to happen"

ONLINE BONUS: I mentioned in last night's post about Syesha's father and his struggles with drugs. She addressed it during this conference call with me and a group of other journalists: "Well, the struggles that we go through, I've always seen it as it can either make you or break you. And for me, it made the strong person that I am. It made the sincere, humble person that I am. Having my dad struggle through that, it really, really - it really made me sad a lot of my life. It actually made me understand people more and be more.... I told myself that I'm not going to let this determine what my future is going to be. I'm going to do something good. And I'm going to help my dad and encourage him and be there for him. And I'm going to make him proud, so that he wants to make me proud, and that's exactly what he's doing now. He sees me doing something good, and it's really motivating him to stay sober and stay clean. And it's just a beautiful story to tell."

Love. This. Girl.