Letter to Me (Episode 2)

Hello my Lovelies and welcome to another edition of Letter to Me. I'll be your host as I guide you through this journey into the past, this trip down memory lane, and what I wish I'd known then. Please remain seated at all times and be prepared for the curves and slippery roads ahead.

Dear seventeen-year-old me: 

First, let me thank you for entertaining your graduating class with your "Future Plans: Life After High School" entry in the yearbook. Everyone got a good laugh out of the thought of you moving to Jamaica and joining a reggae band. I'm so glad that spending two years playing the xylophone for the marching band gave you such humorous inspiration.

College is going to be so much fun! You're finally going to be on your own and you're going to experience so many firsts. You're going to meet some amazingly crazy and wonderfully talented people. You're going to go to band camp and it is going to hit you just how different it is at the college level. You're going to go to your first frat party and have your first hangover. It's going to be awesome! (Not really, but you survive.) Oh, and that party up at the cabin at the lakes? Part of me wants to tell you to skip that, but the other part of me that remembers how much fun you had wants to give you a friendly warning to be careful. Whatever you do, don't get behind the wheel when you're ready to go home. I mean, it works out...barely. Also, that really cute guy is going to be there. Don't do anything stupid. (You will, but I had to try.)

I know how much you hate driving that 1970 Army green Plymouth Satellite, but keep in mind just how fast that baby can go when you push her. Taking Coldwater Hill at 90 mph isn't a wise thing to do and you're going to scare the shit out of yourself when you hit that curve going up the other side. Once again you're going to make it out unscathed, but you're going to be damn lucky. Also, when you're moving into your dorm? Don't put your stereo in the trunk. You aren't going to be happy when you close the lid and bust up the cover because you weren't paying attention to just how horribly you packed your shit.

Spend more time in the commons area playing pool and socializing with your dorm-mates. Did that last sentence come out as "study more?" No? I didn't think so. Spend more time in the FARTS (Fine Arts) building. Wait, that's not right either. You're practically going to live there and you're going to make some of the best memories in the practice rooms. Walking down the hallways at one and two in the morning and hearing those beautiful voices and instruments echoing all around as your musician friends practice their crafts will give you chills each and every time you're there. Stand in the hall. Close your eyes. Listen. Absorb. Let the music sink into your soul and cherish each and every note.

I know majoring in music has been what you've wanted for many years. I know you've dreamed of teaching music and helping to develop young minds and talents, but deep down inside you know it isn't meant to be. I know how much that is going to crush your spirit, but just because things don't work out as you had hoped, doesn't mean you have to turn away from your music. You always said you played and sang for yourself and nobody else, so keep doing it! You'll thank me one day.

Last, but not least, take good care of your piano. One of these days you will video your baby girl playing on it and you'll know you've come full circle.

    ...to be continued.

As always,

Much love from me to you!

Shelly (a/k/a Dawn Love)