Way back then...

As some of you may know, I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan. I love to belt along with her in the car when the windows are down and the music is cranked. A few weeks ago I saw a clip of her on TV talking about being a loner in Middle School. And I couldn’t help but smile. That was totally ME in Jr. High and High School. I was definitely the theater “nerd” and music “snob” – even back then. Everyone seemed to think they knew everything about me simply because they saw me in the musicals and talent shows. I knew that I felt different from what the other kids in school seemed to feel like. I had good grades, loved being in the theater, and refused to participate in some of the, let’s say less safe and school disapproved extra-curricular activities. I stood my ground on my values. My parents taught me that I had the strength to stand on my own two feet and defend what I knew was right. Peer pressure just couldn’t get through my tough skin. But it quickly became very obvious that my fellow students didn’t like people who weren’t like them, or who weren’t trying to be like them. I was singled out and judged for refusing to give in. And unfortunately, there weren’t many friends around to defend me.

That broke my heart. I wanted so badly for people to know who I was and understand that though I was different, different isn’t always bad.

But here I am, putting myself out on a limb for the world to decide if they love me and my music or not. Turns out being the odd one up for judgment in school prepared me for some of the things I’m going to go through now.

Knowing that reminds me to take each experience as it comes, because you never know what you might learn and how it could change your life down the road.

24 hours in a day

Sometimes my schedule can get a little overwhelming. And honestly, I love being busy. It keeps me occupied and on task. But every once in a while I get a stretch where my schedule gives me almost no time to rest my brain. I try and do my best to find time in every day that I spend doing something I want to do. Sometimes it’s watching TV or a movie, but sometimes it’s baking a cake and playing cover tunes on the piano. This week I’m setting aside a morning to make my best friend’s birthday present. And I can’t wait to start! It’s fun to look forward to something later in the week. It keeps me motivated. But I have to get through the days below first.
Consecutive days of insanity can look a little like this in my life:
Day 1- Watch my gorgeous 1.75 year old niece from 8:30-5:30, surprise birthday party for my sister-in-law at 6:30, bed by 2:00 after a few awesome rounds of RockBand with my brother and friends.
Day 2- Up by 8:30 and church band practice from 11:00 to 2:30 with church choir practice and a church service from 3:00 to 5:30.
Day 3- Up by 7:00 and off for more church services from 8:15 to 12:30, then an appointment with urgent care to get rid of my cold, band practice with my band at 7:00, and if all goes well a movie with one of my best buds.
Day 4- Recording studio all day
Day 5- Work in the morning, do a local TV spot in the afternoon
It feels good to accomplish so many things in a week- once they’re all done!

Memory Lane

I decided to take a trip down memory lane today. I drove through the streets of the neighborhood I grew up causing a ruckus in and past the house where I spent the first 8.75 years of my life making forts out of sheets and riding the toy box lid down the stairs. A lot has changed in almost 11 years. The houses, including mine, are all painted new colors. My childhood best friend grew up in a house the color green of peppermint bon-bon ice cream- my favorite. But its color is quite a forgettable one now. People have cut down the gorgeous old trees that used to shade the yards from the summer heat. The incredible purple lilac bush that smelled like heaven has been replaced by a retaining wall. And my favorite twin birch is now only a stump. I used to love watching the helicopters fall through its leaves from the branches of the huge maple that towered over it. Although I think they were more of a nuisance to my parents than they were fun for me. The birch was front and center and two huge maples were on either side that we tapped for syrup every spring. We had this insanely awesome yard too. It was a huge rectangle all the way around the house- amazing for water fights and tag. We used one of the maples for home base in kickball. And if you kicked it all the way back to the rusty red colored fence it was a homerun. My brother would hide my water baby in the bushes, and I rescued his baseball cards from the rain out by the chain link fence. The slip-and-slide was our favorite part of summer. And now a new garage stands where our tire sand box once sat. We drew birds with chalk on the walls of the old garage, and ran in and out of its doors all summer and winter long. That house was once my home- with its neon octagon carpet, wood panel walls, and a peach colored bathroom. And I was terrified to leave it. I somehow thought that leaving would mean losing. But, not surprisingly, my parents and big brother knew better than I. With the new house came just as good memories and just as much love. The place didn’t matter as much as the people did. I remember everything about that house and that place and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I suppose part of me would have loved to keep it there in a time warp. But being here now, feels just as great.

DT