Lessons

Reading is one of the chief joys of my life. Other than spending time in deep, meaningful conversation with friends and family dear to my heart, or engaging in a musical pursuit of some sort, reading is an unrivaled passion. I find myself now, as a young woman, discovering who I am and how much my childhood has shaped me into who I am today. And reading holds the key to some of those discoveries- I believe that much of my drive, ambitions, hopes and dreams come from books I read as a girl. How lovely it is to find the books even dearer to my heart than before, and the lessons I learned then to be as relevant to life now as they were then! I used to wish to be a teacher and an author (thank you Anne of Green Gables and Little Women, respectively), and a part of me still does long for a stint in those professions at some point in my life.

I'm most actively enjoying a new book, The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer, by Renee Fleming, one of the opera greats of our day. It is her journey as a singer and her helpful advice to other young aspiring singers. I've been a musician since I was five and began playing the keyboard at the Montessouri School I attended for kindergarten. I've identified myself as a pianist for fifteen years now. I began studying voice in middle school, and it did not come as naturally or as easily to me as piano did- it was something to be continually worked at and my confidence in my voice was sorely lacking. I came to the OU School of Music as a freshman determined to continue studying BOTH. And I did first semester- except that it nearly did me in. So I decided to pursue voice and let piano take the back burner. It's one of the scariest things I've had to do this year- needless to say, confidence is still lacking in the vocal area. I know I have a pretty voice and that I'm a good musician, but I long to have a beautiful, versatile voice that comes from a mastery of music. I learned from competing in Miss Oklahoma that I absolutely CANNOT compare myself to anyone else, and I intend to take that lesson into my pursuit of music, as I am often wont to do that when I spend any length of time around my fellow vocalists at school. In the words of Mrs. Fleming- "while it's a fact that a voice begins with natural talent, any talent must be nurtured, cajoled, wrestled with, pampered, challenged, and, at every turn, examined. "

So, thanks to yet another wonderful book, I'm gaining some incredible insights into life and what it takes to do anything well. I observed what it takes to become Miss Oklahoma firsthand backstage, and now I'm learning from the real life experience of a mentor who I may never meet what it takes to pursue a dream and the inspiration to pursue mine.