Why You Should Always Go For It Yakima Valley Part One
I've been singing since I was little. There's a very vivid memory of me watching The Mickey Mouse Club and thinking, I could do that, but I don't ever recall telling my parents that.
Maybe I was too nervous or thought living six hours away from L.A. was too much of a drive. At least L.A. is where my seven-year-old brain assumed the show was located. Google didn't exist yet. I was way off, the drive actually would have been 43 hours to reach Florida.
Either way, I say this because the stuff you love has really weird stops and starts. If I've already bored you, please at the very least take away this challenge. Do the things you love as often as you can. Throw caution to the wind when anxiety tells you not to go for it and keep doing it as long as you're able.
The only time I allowed my family in on my love for singing was five years later when I sang I Will Survive on a cruise. I received praise and felt weird about it so I stopped.
I struggle to read music and used/use that as an excuse as to why I didn't write or perform more. In eighth grade I tried out for Bye Bye Birdie and was called back with ten other girls but being unfamiliar with the music, I not only half-heartedly bombed my try-out I was told eighth-graders weren't allowed to sing in the cast. That weird 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade transition "killed the dream for me." Hee hee, it was around that same time I was given one of my favorite presents, a cassette tape of the Broadway musical Les Miserables. I have been loving it for 20+ years now.
We moved across town and A.C Davis wasn't doing musicals so I sang at church but started developing a bit of an attitude.
The summer I graduated high school I auditioned for a talent showcase and made it through to audition in Seattle where my song of choice was Etta James's At Last. Three girls sang it before me. I had another song I'd been practicing but just loved Etta and went with it. Wrong choice. I was able to speak to one talent scout who suggested in the future having backups but keep going.
I volunteered myself for the National Anthem at YVC and listened to Whitney Houston's version for about a week straight, day and night. I Nailed it even with my hand shaking so hard I thought I might drop the mic. Sadly the proof was stolen by a ****bird.
In college, I tried out for Hawaii Stars and made it through to the first round where I sang Proud Mary. It was awesome, even though five minutes before I went on I was told I wasn't supposed to move 5 inches in any direction from where I started so the camera could keep up. I was again told I had talent and should keep going.
One more National Anthem for a basketball game at Hawaii Pacific University and afterward I received a note from the basketball coach that meant the world to me. If you ever are inspired by an artist, go for it and let them know. ✨️
After college, I was in a band that made it to one performance but then I was cut, apparently, I had an attitude. I think it was my anxiety and perfectionism coming across like I was aloof, I was just too terrified to make a fool of myself and couldn't let loose. That's not singing and it wasn't fun. I would put on performances in the cubicle at my college internship. The old man who worked across the way could go ballistic a few times a week about the noise.
I had a period where a few songs flew out of me and I recorded a song called Purple Rain. I nailed it in one take and was in Heaven.
One more studio session for a song I can't recall In the same studio where the cast of the television show Lost came for re-cuts. Fun times and good memories.
Being away from home long enough I felt, while on a vacation home I'd sing an original song at church but honestly there is an embarrassing video of me performing that song and asking for it to be restarted so people could really get into it. I couldn't hear myself and messed up the beginning. I wished I would have just kept going. No one knows but are kidding me? I can't imagine what the churchgoers were thinking. Talk about a gross diva but ya know life's messy and if you can't learn and acknowledge you can't grow. I don't know that girl anymore. Insecurity shows up in interesting ways.
I sang the National Anthem and the Hawaii Ponoi before our softball games for an entire season. Enough times to acquire some really sweet mess-ups. Coach Howard once said, "Our ancestors are rolling in their graves." If I had offended him it didn't last long. After storms, when cleaning the field he'd ask me to sing while we worked.
I sang on cruise ships during the crew show and formed a little group called The Tiny Tina's and was offered the ending song where the staff comes down the aisle and we'd all wave. Halfway through, I forgot the lyrics and adlibbed for a minute. I made it through but was never asked to sing it again.
CLICK HERE for Part TWO including the time I had to sing for the port authority of Egypt!
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