Week Seven: A Journey

It was my seventeenth birthday. We had finished my birthday dinner, and had moved on to dessert, cheesecake.

My family came over to celebrate. Now, in this case (the broader use of the word) family meant my mom, Nay, Nessa, my dad, my grandma and pepe (maternal grandparents) my Aunt who was also my GoddessMother (not a biological aunt, but still an aunt nonetheless), and my GoddessFather and his partner. I was opening my birthday presents (books, wizard rock CD's, books, band t-shirts, books...) when my GoddessFather went out to his car and brought in his present. I had to shut my eyes as he brought it in, since it wasn't wrapped, but when I was told that I could open, there was a guitar sitting in front of me.

Let it be known, at this time, I didn't know one chord from another, I couldn't hold it correctly, I wasn't musically inclined, or even taking lessons.

But I had a guitar, and that was AWESOME.

That was April.

What happened next came naturally. I taught myself three chords and began to haltingly play a few easy songs. After playing more or less regularly for a few months, I got frustrated with not knowing how to play anything. All the songs I could play weren't what I wanted to play, and the songs that I actually wanted were far, far too hard for me.

So I wrote a song using the only chords I knew, in September.

That song is "It's Raining, Annie", a tribute to Banned Book Week and the book Annie On My Mind*.

I kept at playing, always referring back to a birthday note I'd gotten from one of my favorite bands which said "Learning a new instrument is hard. Just keep at it, and you'll be good in no time. Music is the best outlet, rockin' pwns!". Whenever I felt like I was floundering, I looked at it and pressed down a few more chords.

One day, I played until my fingers were so sore, I could barely type. It never got to the point where my fingers actually bled, like in the song "summer of '69" that I love so dearly, but they hurt.

I received my guitar almost two years ago. I didn't realize at that time that it would change my life, but it has.

Over the past two years, I've gone from having practically no confidence in my own musicality to really believing that I have the talent to not only sing, but play and write my own music.

This isn't to say that I'm just sitting here blowing my own horn, but more of just a look back and see how far I've come. I think it's a good idea to sit back sometimes, and just look at the past. Even though I've learned so much, I've still got so much more to go.

That's a pretty important metaphor for life in general, I think. No matter how much we learn, there's always something new. I'm not saying that you can't be happy with where you are, believe me, but just that there will be something new to discover...forever. And that is an AMAZING, wonderful thing.

~Whimsy


P.S. I wrote a new song, and I'm really proud of it. You can all go listen to it HERE. I wrote it for YOU ALL. ^__^

*In case you don't know, Annie On My Mind is a phenomenal lgbtq(etc) YA book.