NaBloPoMo

So it begins, thirty days of posting. As in real posts with content and meaning. We'll see how long the meaning lasts.

Today I will tell you something about me that not a lot of people in my current life know about. I am a musician. Or I should say was. I have played the piano since I was five. I didn't take my first lesson until I was nine, I taught myself in the beginning by playing by ear. I would lay down next to the gigantic 1970's speakers and memorize the music I was hearing then run to the piano and figure it out. For the first year of my lessons, I would make my teacher play the piece first, then I would play it. Always memorizing how it sounds and never actually reading the music. I fooled everyone for the first year until my teacher finally figured out that I was conning everyone. I eventually learned to read music, but now I can no longer play by ear. That is one thing I wishI never lost. It is such a great gift.

I continued with music in elementary school by learning the violin. I can tell you that ALL people in my life were grateful when I switched over to the flute in the sixth grade. I was not a very good violin player.

In junior high I started playing piano for the jazz band and got involved with percussion enjoying both very much. My freshman year of high school, every girl I knew played the flute so in order to get into Varsity band (which is really much cooler than it sounds, really) I decided to learn the bassoon. So I did and became quite good.

My junior year I decided I was tired of playing the piccolo in marching band and wanted to join drum line, where all the really cool people were. I wanted to play the cymbals but the new instructor wanted me to play mallets (marimba, xylophone, vibes, etc). And I loved it. In fact I got really good and by my senior year of high school I was the best in the state.

Then I turned eighteen in January of my senior year and I came down with a horribly serious and incurable case of senioritis. It was so bad I stopped everything, studying - which at that point was a joke since I only had elective classes and didn't need to study to get an A, and all my music lessons. I was taking piano and mallet lessons in order to get a full scholarship to NAU. Needless to say, I blew that. Big time. In fact my mom still brings it up every now and then. She was really mad at me at the time.

I did move on to NAU, without the scholarship (STUPID, STUPID, STUPID) and continued to loose all interest in music whatsoever. I still play the piano a little bit today, I have a beautiful antique upright player piano from 1906 that is my pride and joy. I just do not make the time in my schedule to play, much to my husband's dismay. He loves it when I play.

I know that things happen for a reason, if I had gone to NAU on that scholarship I would have graduated and moved to NY or LA to do what I wanted - movie scores. But instead, and here is the very less glamorous part, I dropped out of school and moved back home. Had this not happened though, I would not have met Mr. Sparky and I wouldn't have the life I do now. I do wonder sometimes what life would have been like. Would I have been successful? Would I have been able to make a career out of it? Would I be making a lot of money? Would I have been happy?

I know that I made the right choice now, even though at the time it was painful for all involved. And the road to this point has not been easy, it's been cluttered with drama and pain and frustration. But I'm happy now, and content with my life (as content as an infertile can be) and know that when God is ready for me to use the talent He gave me, He will let me know.