General Hospital fan-favorite Sydney Mikayla is opening up about her departure from the show and her role of Trina Robinson.

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest’s podcast Dishing with Digest, Mikayla discussed her collegiate experience at USC, which she is attending as part of the graduating class of 2025.

The actress also discussed being a double major.

“I knew that I wanted to focus on somewhere that would allow me to double major, that was a little more fast-paced,” Mikayla said. “So I knew UCLA was the place for me.”

General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini previously said to Soap Opera Digest said Mikayla made the decision to exit the show to focus more on college. The actress, who earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Younger Performer In A Drama Series in 2021, stepped into the role in 2019 as a member of General Hospital’s teen ensemble. Assuming the role of Trina will be newcomer Tabyana Ali.

In the interview, Mikayla discussed the fast-paced nature of college and midterms.

“I think my parents and I called it the ‘tester quarter,’ is what we tried to see, like, is this going to work? Is this actually feasible? And I think what we didn’t really expect is how crazy a ten-week quarter is, because we’re learning the same information that you would learn in a semester in half the time,” Mikayla said on the podcast. “So our midterms are halfway, like five weeks, so most people are kind of just getting into classes; midterms are already done at five weeks. You are taking finals at the tenth week, so that was a pretty crazy experience.”

During the interview, Mikayla also discussed the demands of balancing college work with her acting gig on General Hospital, something that eventually factored in her decision to depart the long-running ABC soap opera.

“So all these components….I was like, I don’t know that I’m ever going to be able to do this again and I think this may be the point where I have to say, unfortunately, goodbye to GH, which is really difficult,” she continued. “But I think it may be time, so I think that is kind of where the decision came about.”

Listen to Sydney Mikayla’s full podcast interview below.

Sydney Mikayla

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