Monday, December 10, 2018
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Update
Being a 25 year old post- grad isn't as easy as I thought it would be.
Still don't have a real solid plan.
Figuring it out though...
Missing my days in Johnson City.
My friends.
The mountains.
I live in solitude.
Always alone.
I go to work.
The little hours I do...
I play shows.
Drive long hours.
Come home.
Alone.
it's hard
living in these days of social media
people living with their heads in their phones
no one knows how to connect in real life anymore
people are comfortable with their friends from their childhood
the days before phones were attached to peoples hands
there is no room for new friends in their lives
there is no room for realness
People always said Johnson City was stuck ten years in the past.
Maybe I'm more comfortable there...
In the past.
Still don't have a real solid plan.
Figuring it out though...
Missing my days in Johnson City.
My friends.
The mountains.
I live in solitude.
Always alone.
I go to work.
The little hours I do...
I play shows.
Drive long hours.
Come home.
Alone.
it's hard
living in these days of social media
people living with their heads in their phones
no one knows how to connect in real life anymore
people are comfortable with their friends from their childhood
the days before phones were attached to peoples hands
there is no room for new friends in their lives
there is no room for realness
People always said Johnson City was stuck ten years in the past.
Maybe I'm more comfortable there...
In the past.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
An intro to my life- college edition
I graduated from East Tennessee State University last May. ( May 2017)
I got a baccalaureate degree in Fine Arts .
I spent too much time in school... seven years to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast, but i definitely took the scenic route.
I started attending E.T.S.U. the fall semester after i graduated high school. I was seventeen and a "yankee" in a "southern" school. (yes i was called a yankee many times... non-jokingly)
Totally ironic, Johnson city was for the Union and at one point was it's own state; the "State of Franklin." And where i am from ( Southern Maryland) was for the confederacy. I did try to tell people that, but it was not well received... The civil war is still very relevant in the south.
I had no friends that went to E.T.S.U. No Family. No one but myself. I was alone. I cried a lot. Learned a lot of new lessons. I had to do everything and figure out everything on my own.
I missed home so bad... missed my parents and my sister.
I wasn't okay with being alone until my fifth or sixth year of living in Tennessee.
I started hiking a lot... alone. I found myself spiritually on the trails of Buffalo Mountain and Laurel Falls. The mountains there are so beautiful. I swear they have healing powers and hidden gems of spiritual energy. The mountains are dangerous, dark, and sometimes scary, but they are also sunny, warm, and inviting at the same time.
I received a Public Performance Scholarship from the E.T.S.U. Bluegrass, Country, and Old-Time Music Program which made my tuition the price of in-state tuition.
So i went to "bluegrass school."
I started playing bluegrass when i was 13 years old. My main instrument is the violin or "fiddle," if you will. I grew up listening to bluegrass because of my dad and uncle mark. My dad played the banjo and my uncle mark played some fiddle, and guitar.
My dzia dzia (polish for grand-pa) was a professional polka musician. He started playing music professionally when he was only 13 years old. He played the accordion and piano. My dad always used to tell me about how fast he could play. My dad is 100% Polish.
My Busia (grand-ma) and Dzia Dzia grew up in Ohio. I could be wrong but i believe they lived down the street from each other in a Polish neighborhood.
So i went to bluegrass school. And after the first year I decided it was "stupid" and i wasn't going to make any money playing bluegrass. So i changed my major to Interior Design... which was what i originally wanted to go to school for...kind-of. I wanted to go to school for Architecture, to be exact.
I liked it a lot in high-school and my dad is a contractor/ carpenter/ designer/ builder, so it runs in the family and is familiar. But high school is nothing like college.
Interior design is fun, but what they don't tell you when you're a freshman is that you don't need a degree to practice and get paid for Interior Design... you could do it for your friends or people you know, or get a certification if you want to be professional about it.
They also don't tell you that you need to be 100% okay with having no social life and spending hours and hours of time alone drawing. And you have to be incredibly self- disciplined. I loved the idea of it... but the work, not so much.
What i loved was playing music and having fun with my friends and the freedom to have a life.
So after two years of crying in my professors office, staying up through the night, and failing some classes, i decided to change my major back to bluegrass, country, and old time music.
The catch was you Had to have 4 semesters of foreign language and a minor for the degree.
That sucked...
My last year of school i changed my major to continuing studies or general studies, with a BGCOTM minor, because i failed my last semester required of french and i wanted to graduate and get out of there.
Oh how i miss E.T.S.U. now...
I moved back home because:
I got a baccalaureate degree in Fine Arts .
I spent too much time in school... seven years to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast, but i definitely took the scenic route.
I started attending E.T.S.U. the fall semester after i graduated high school. I was seventeen and a "yankee" in a "southern" school. (yes i was called a yankee many times... non-jokingly)
Totally ironic, Johnson city was for the Union and at one point was it's own state; the "State of Franklin." And where i am from ( Southern Maryland) was for the confederacy. I did try to tell people that, but it was not well received... The civil war is still very relevant in the south.
I had no friends that went to E.T.S.U. No Family. No one but myself. I was alone. I cried a lot. Learned a lot of new lessons. I had to do everything and figure out everything on my own.
I missed home so bad... missed my parents and my sister.
I wasn't okay with being alone until my fifth or sixth year of living in Tennessee.
I started hiking a lot... alone. I found myself spiritually on the trails of Buffalo Mountain and Laurel Falls. The mountains there are so beautiful. I swear they have healing powers and hidden gems of spiritual energy. The mountains are dangerous, dark, and sometimes scary, but they are also sunny, warm, and inviting at the same time.
I received a Public Performance Scholarship from the E.T.S.U. Bluegrass, Country, and Old-Time Music Program which made my tuition the price of in-state tuition.
So i went to "bluegrass school."
I started playing bluegrass when i was 13 years old. My main instrument is the violin or "fiddle," if you will. I grew up listening to bluegrass because of my dad and uncle mark. My dad played the banjo and my uncle mark played some fiddle, and guitar.
My dzia dzia (polish for grand-pa) was a professional polka musician. He started playing music professionally when he was only 13 years old. He played the accordion and piano. My dad always used to tell me about how fast he could play. My dad is 100% Polish.
My Busia (grand-ma) and Dzia Dzia grew up in Ohio. I could be wrong but i believe they lived down the street from each other in a Polish neighborhood.
So i went to bluegrass school. And after the first year I decided it was "stupid" and i wasn't going to make any money playing bluegrass. So i changed my major to Interior Design... which was what i originally wanted to go to school for...kind-of. I wanted to go to school for Architecture, to be exact.
I liked it a lot in high-school and my dad is a contractor/ carpenter/ designer/ builder, so it runs in the family and is familiar. But high school is nothing like college.
Interior design is fun, but what they don't tell you when you're a freshman is that you don't need a degree to practice and get paid for Interior Design... you could do it for your friends or people you know, or get a certification if you want to be professional about it.
They also don't tell you that you need to be 100% okay with having no social life and spending hours and hours of time alone drawing. And you have to be incredibly self- disciplined. I loved the idea of it... but the work, not so much.
What i loved was playing music and having fun with my friends and the freedom to have a life.
So after two years of crying in my professors office, staying up through the night, and failing some classes, i decided to change my major back to bluegrass, country, and old time music.
The catch was you Had to have 4 semesters of foreign language and a minor for the degree.
That sucked...
My last year of school i changed my major to continuing studies or general studies, with a BGCOTM minor, because i failed my last semester required of french and i wanted to graduate and get out of there.
Oh how i miss E.T.S.U. now...
I moved back home because:
- i was serving at two corporate restaurants Ruby Tuesdays, and Cheddars
- i couldn't save up any money
- i wasn't playing much music
- i hadn't spent much time with my family for 7 years
- i didn't have the drive to propel my career
- there wasn't many good job opportunities in JC
- there wasn't a lot of money circulating in that area in general
- i needed help financially
I can comfortably say i will never serve at a corporate restaurant again.
I absolutely hate it.
Granted, i serve now, part- time at Union Stage in D.C. But it's a music venue, not a restaurant, and it's different. And i'm trying to move up to bar-tending.
I have three part-time jobs.
I teach music lessons at a local music shop in La Plata, MD.
I teach violin, vocals, and beginner guitar.
I serve and sometimes bar-tend at Union Stage.
and of course, I perform with my band.
People sometimes ask if i have thought about getting a "real job."
I am perfectly happy with where i am right now.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
First Post
I have been thinking and talking about creating/ writing a blog for some time now.
From the time I was a child, I have kept a journal of some sort.
I like having a personal, hand-written record of things that happen in my life.
Some things take precedence over others. Some entries are life events that are so important or jarring that they must be written down for my own sanity; others are significant dreams that I write down just to remember.
To remember...
-an emotion i felt
-an event
-not to do that again
-not to let someone make me feel that way about myself again
To observe...
-who i was at that time
-who i am now
-who was in my life
-who was there with good intention and who wasn't
(The brain has a funny way of blocking out painful experiences, and not "remembering" things that don't serve the image one has of oneself.)
This blog will be a cache of personal accounts, reviews, suggestions, experiences, news, opinions, and word art.
Thank you for reading.
From the time I was a child, I have kept a journal of some sort.
I like having a personal, hand-written record of things that happen in my life.
Some things take precedence over others. Some entries are life events that are so important or jarring that they must be written down for my own sanity; others are significant dreams that I write down just to remember.
To remember...
-an emotion i felt
-an event
-not to do that again
-not to let someone make me feel that way about myself again
To observe...
-who i was at that time
-who i am now
-who was in my life
-who was there with good intention and who wasn't
(The brain has a funny way of blocking out painful experiences, and not "remembering" things that don't serve the image one has of oneself.)
This blog will be a cache of personal accounts, reviews, suggestions, experiences, news, opinions, and word art.
Thank you for reading.
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