You Can Do Anything

Having a passion for something is one of the most beautiful emotions life has to offer us. I think it’s a stronger kind of love than most of us think we are familiar with. I say that because we often sacrifice so much for our passions, things like family, friends, finances, comfort, stability, and that is pretty wild. Passions do a lot for us, they give us hope, raw emotions, troubles, pride, an abundance of experience and wisdom. How could you not appreciate and fall deeper into that?

When I was eight, I realized I had become passionate towards music. I used to wish that I had been more keen to sports or school, or that my passion was to become a doctor or something more realistic, but then I questioned why I though it couldn’t be realistic to be a musician. It was in that moment that I developed my “anything is possible” attitude. Music is realistic, it’s just how hard you work at it, and how honest you are with yourself and others. How much you want something shows in how much effort AND THOUGHT you put into it. Passions like music, I feel, are the toughest ones, because you have to be so patient, and you have to struggle and often sacrifice a lot of what society believes are foundations in life. However, none of that should be enough to scare you away from pursuing your dreams.

I took every opportunity that came my way, I would do every talent show, every open mic, but there was a time where doing those things no longer appealed to me. I felt like I was getting nowhere and going nowhere. When you pour your entire being into something, it is so easy to feel like you are wasting time when you’re not secure in yourself. However, if you dwell on the “what if I’m not good enough” side of things, you’ll never do what you want to do. You do have to believe in yourself to some extent, or else you wouldn’t do anything. Anyways, I played an open mic and that led to recording an album, meeting my bandmates, playing any shows we could get, to having 800+ monthly listeners on Spotify and opening up for bands that have large followings in a span of 6 months.

Things don’t always happen that rapidly, but I’ve also been writing and making music since I was 8, almost prepping myself for finally doing things seriously and taking myself to the next level. I don’t know where things will go from here, but I think about music every minute of every day. I still doubt myself all the time, but I have to put that aside and just keep going. That’s really what you have to do, you just have to ask “how bad do I want this?” And, depending on your answer, you could get to where you want to be.

The other day someone tweeted at me saying “@GIRLKBAND [my band] is the only reason I have hope that I’ll get out of Minooka [my hometown] and pursue my dreams.” I quoted it and told her she can do it, and that she could do anything. I truly believe that. The fact that I‘ve been able to give someone hope is just such a crazy feeling. I want everyone to feel like their dreams and passions are possible to pursue and are worth pursuing, because they are.

I dunno where I’m going, but here I am.