Have you ever been forced to sit down and listen to somebody play guitar and sing for you? Well...if not, swing by my place and I'll fix that problem. I serenade to anyone.
Ever since I was 12, I wanted to learn guitar. Honestly it's because my older brother Jaymian started to play the electric in our youth group, so I would always watch him and wonder how the hoopla he could move his fingers in a sequence without having to look down at them.
I thought to myself, I'm gunna learn how to play a guitar one day. And I'm gunna be BOSS at it.
I quickly got my own electric guitar (in which I named Sparklez...cuz it made sense), and learned how to play it EXACTLY never.
It collected dust in the corner of my room for four years. I tried to teach myself but NOTHING made sense. I tried to get people to teach me but everyone was too busy. For four years, I told myself and others that I would learn, but I never did. Nothing ever gave me enough umph.
BUT THEN...One day...I discovered a song. A very simple, very soft acoustic song called Boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawk. It somehow set off a spark in me, and I couldn't not learn how to play guitar any longer. That one spark from one simple song has kept me going 3 years later. I taught myself everything I know now, because this time I wasn't forcing myself to learn. I just wanted to.
And today, I've truly felt the sheer joy in playing guitar! It has nothing to do with a perfect performance or a song or anything--but from my student who's only about five years younger than me.
The funny thing was that I wasn't looking for somebody to teach at all. But people just come and ask to learn, just like I did when I was 12. Even though I was horrified by the thought of teaching anybody for the first time anything, I agreed to it. I wanted to give her that chance that I never really had.
Well, on with the story, Allison! Today, five months since her first lesson, as I walked into our practicing room, there waited for me the two most delicious-looking cupcakes I've ever seen.
"These are for you!" My student said to me, "It's your 'For Being a Good Teacher' gift!"
I don't think any words can properly express how I felt right at that moment. A few weeks ago I had given her my own cupcakes that I had made, and told her they were her "Good Job" rewards, the first gift I've ever given her for being my student--but never in a million years did I ever think about receiving a gift for being a good teacher.
I'm a pretty schizophrenic teacher though, honestly. Often I think faster than I can talk so my words fall out of my mouth all jumbly dumbly, and I don't know specific words of certain things so I can be really vague sometimes, but she gave me CUPCAKES.
And not just any cupcakes, you see. Chocolate chip, cream cheese, chocolate cupcakes. That...is the cupcake of champions. And she gave me two.
You see, my fellow reader, I'm sharing this story for a bunch of reasons and it would be a complete waste if you didn't catch a single one of them so here's you a list:
1) The guitar is possible to learn if you truly want to. You will hunt down a teacher. You will hunt down random YouTube videos. You will learn somehow if the spark is there.
2) Try something you've never done, to receive something you've never received.
And lastly,
3) Guitars make cupcakes delicious.
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