Tuesday, December 30, 2014

End Notes for 2014...

Today was my last drum lesson until June 2015, one of the major new things in my life. What a crazy way to end the year. I'm so glad that I can reflect on this past year and smile at so many good things that have happened.

If I were to give you the highlights of my year it'd go like this;

- Got my drum kit
- Imagine Dragons concert
- Finished Freshman year
- Summer camp 2014
- Baptized
- Monumentour (Paramore and Fall Out Boy concert)
- Dislocated my knee (Okay, I know this is a bad one but it was a big part of my year)
- Started drum lessons
- Started Sophomore year
- New Found Glory concert
- Losing almost 30 pounds
- Annual Christmas Pops symphony
- Christmas

Although those are all bigger events that really made a impact on me this year, its all the little moments those things are made up of.the multitude of bad days seem so little in comparison to joyful little things I adore. 
This is not the "highlights" of my year, the big things that happened, but all the things I think of and appreciate the most; 

- Finally having the opportunity to play drums. 
- Yelling the words of the song "Amsterdam" at the Imagine Dragons show
- Ending off my first good school year in a long time
- Laughing with my friends
- Discovering Raising Canes (the best food ever)
-  Nice and funny snapchats from a friend at twelve o'clock at night after I got back from the E.R. (when I dislocated my knee)
- Singing "Mr.Sandman" in the camp talent show with close friends of mine (We totally rocked it btw)
- Pranking boys at camp
- Getting a red-lipstick-confidence-you-go-girl-pep-talk in the camp bathroom
- Getting so close to God I decided to dedicate my life to him through Baptism
- Learning a lot about drums and myself (See)
- Playing a beat then crashing both cymbals at the end of it for the first time (The most empowering thing) 
- Building up even better relationships with some of my friends
- Rocked the heck out at my first pop punk concert (Hopefully crowd surfing will be in next years post ;D )
- Loved myself and my body so much I decide that it was time I treated it right 
- Fit into a size 8 dress! (My goal since forever)
- Stared up at the stars and talked about life for hours with two great friends
- Laughed till I cried over dumb stuff (www.target.com/beauty) (Really hope the person that knows that joke will see this)
- Improved on decreasing my internet addiction 
- Wrote poetry I am very proud of. 
- Made it through a full year without my depression coming back. 
- Got help for ADHD, something I've struggled with for a long time. 

In 2012 I looked back at the year and said "Wow, this year changed my life", I did the same in 2013, and am doing the same this year, 2014. I've decided what better goal in life than to look back every year and say "This year changed my life". It's so important to change, don't let life be boring. If 2015 turns my world upside down and gives me much heart ache, I know in the end I'll look back and know that it improved me and I learned from it. If 2015 is the greatest year of my life thus far, I'll look back and think of all the wonderful life changing moments and find how I can take those memories and put more of them in my life. No matter how this next year turns out, I'll change, I'll improve, but I sure hope I look back and say 2015 was the year that changed my life. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

What Learning to Play Drums Has Taught Me

     

     I started playing drums in July, the very first instrument of any type that I've attempted to play. With no prior knowledge of reading or playing music and barely knowing each part of the drum kit I began taking lessons. Lets get this straight; there's beginners... and then there's me, way down below beginner level. Within the first month I was sitting at my drum kit, blurry eyed from tears, staring at my snare drum sheet music I taped to my crash cymbal. In that month I also learned simple beats, including a bass snare bass snare rhythm that is very basic but used a lot, excited I listened for it in every song on my play list or radio. With this, I persevered knowing that "anything worth having doesn't come easy."

Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Years Resolutions

I've never failed a New Years resolution simply because I have never made any. I can't fail if I don't try so I never bothered. But this year I pulled out my notebook and plotted different ideas for possible goals and what I would do to achieve them. These were the four I picked and what I'm doing to stay motivated for them.

1. Workout more (eating healthy ties in with this one obviously although it not one of my specific written goals)
- Workout at least 3 times a week
- Follow fitness related Instagrams, Pintrest boards, and Twitter accounts.
- The "Pop Punk 5" workout (Via)
- Never skip a Monday because knowing me, I won't do it the rest of the week. 
- Find new workouts, keep it fresh. 

2. Drum more
- 15 minutes almost every day
- Keep my practice pad where I can see it
- Pictures of my drummer inspiration/music quotes (Pat Kirch from The Maine is my biggest inspiration <3)
- Watch drumming videos

3. Write more
- Write something or edit something almost every day
- Poems, blog posts, stories, journal entries
- Jar of journal prompts (from Pinterest)
- Read writing tip posts to motivate myself and better my writing. 

- ipod reminders so I don't forget about it