Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Once upon a time...

...there was a young girl who lived for music. We're not talking about Top 40 music here. I mean classical, jazz... This girl practiced on her hand-me-down flute at least 5 hours a day in high school (a feat as she went to school all day and also had a part-time job) and when she became a music major in college, and could schedule her classes as she liked, she was known to be closeted in a practice room for 10 to 12 hours a day.

She presented her junior recital in March 1993. Shortly after, she cracked, put her flute in a closet, dropped out of school, and just existed for a year and a half.

That girl, now a woman, enrolled in a different college and tried again. Her choice of school, while close to home, turned out to be a mistake as after two years, she could no longer afford her education. And she dropped out again.

That was in 1996.

Since then, she has played her flute for weddings and for herself, which is what she finally figured out music was all about. She has not taken or given a lesson in nearly 12 years.

She gives her first flute lesson in all those years tomorrow night. Wish her luck.

(and yes, it's me)

1 comment:

Shannon said...

Oh wow. So how did it go? I know how stressful music school can be. While I was "only" a music ed major, my roommate was violin performance. Talk about closeting herself away to practice!

Sometimes it is better to have music in you life on your own terms. You can still love your music making without it becoming a major source of stress.

Good luck!