Find the Loop and Change the Rhythm: How Observation and Recording Can Help You Break Bad Cycles
Music has always been an important part of my life. In high school, I played in several bands and then chose my college based on it’s music program. But, in my third year of school, I was given the opportunity to audition for a touring band. I was a bass player. The audition didn’t go well, but, they were also in need of a Sound Engineer and during the audition process, they had seen my skills first-hand. I was invited to join them.
My father had sacrificed a lot for me to attend college. I was the first in my family to go, so I was very anxious to tell him that I was dropping out to go on the road as a sound engineer. However, when I told him, he was supportive. I left school and drove home to pack my things and prepare the band’s gear for nine months on the road. The day before I left, my father handed me a gift: a leather bound journal. Inside, in his unmistakably blocky print, it said, “Record the thoughts of your youth.”
I learned more about myself over the next nine months than at any other point in my life. In that journal, I wrote much of it down. But when I finally came home, journaling stuck, and now twenty-five years later, I have countless journals to look through.
