I remember at age 6 that I was begging my parents to buy me a violin. Like clockwork, I would wake up and go downstairs just to remind them how I still wanted the four-string instrument that would soon consume my life. For my eighth birthday, my parents led me on a scavenger hunt around the house, leading me to a closet door that opened up to my new three-fourth violin. After two years of basic lessons from my nana, my mom sent me to other teachers hoping I would continue to progress. Around age 12, I hated all of my teachers and refused to practice and go to my lessons. My loving parents finally let me take a break until age 15 when I picked it up for my sophomore and junior year, and I have hardly picked it up since.
Here I am, almost 20 years old, and I regret those days I would spend watching TV instead of caring for my beautiful violin. Since age 15, I have picked up the ukulele, guitar, some piano and I sing like there is no tomorrow. But I still haven’t been able to pick up my violin. I constantly ask myself why? I have owned violins for 11 years and known how to play for just under that. If I have this ability, why do I refuse to do it?
I always come to this conclusion: I made sure that I was able to put EVERYTHING before violin. Not music, just violin. I would rather get a job, clean my room, watch TV and do homework. Sure, some of those activities seem amazing, but I was wasting a gift I knew that God had given me. He blessed me with a family who could afford music lessons and an electric and regular violin. He blessed me with an insane memory for music so I could play anything by heart. He blessed me with an ear for music, so I could match the sounds without notes. But here I am, wasting my talent because I am lazy and have not gotten my priorities straight.
I fully believe that I would be a better person in multiple ways if i had continued to practice and push myself. I would be more dedicated, better with music, driven and I wouldn’t be wasteful of my talents. When it got hard, I stopped when I should have pushed through the problems. Being able to read music and play classical pieces teach such discipline and patience. Unlike being able to pick up any song on ukulele and guitar with a chord chart on some website, fiddle and classical pieces are much harder and take more time to master.
While I still would rather play guitar and sing for Young Life and doodle around on my ukulele around a campfire, I will never feel as fulfilled as I do when I master a violin piece.
