When I was very young, my mother Rose would sing me to sleep at night. To this day I still hear her voice singing those tender notes to me every time I’m about to go to sleep. My mom singing to me before I went to sleep was the root of all intuition I had to start singing.

I am 18 years old and I have been singing since I was about 10 years old. There is a time I can remember when I was about 16 years old that I didn’t even want to sing anymore because I had found out my grandmother had passed away from cancer. To be quite honest, I didn’t even want to sing another note in my life. I felt as if the last motivation to sing had been hacked away from my already mutilated heart. I felt as if my short-handed life had faced the final blow from fate. Until I had met my current best friend- Samantha M. She was so nice to me that it actually reminded me of my mother. Sam didn’t know I was in choir at the time because of the fact that I had only met her the previous day. She caught up with me in the hall and asked what class I had next. I unenthusiastically told her that I had choir next hour. Her reply was the very LAST thing that I had wanted to hear from her at that point. “ME TOO!!”

After choir, Sam had told me that I had a good voice so I should try out for a solo. Well, I eventually did, and it went surprisingly well for me. After that, I had begun singing again. Sam and I sang side by side for about a year and she supported me the whole time, even when I didn’t feel like going through the crap that I was facing for singing instead of being a “football star”, as a lot of people thought I would want to be, given my athletic abilities and willingness to put forth my all in every situation possible. As I then started to contemplate all possible options in my life, I was faced with a tough decision that I had life altering outcomes. I could either quit singing for the time during football season or I could stop playing football for a period of time in order to do an activity called “solo and ensemble”. I had contemplated this decision for two weeks before I made my final decision in the matter. I had decided to take up my opportunity to sing at the “Solo and ensemble”. I am still singing and to this day it is a common occurrence that I am being told I am too loud around the house that I stay in and I’m forced to quiet down. But through all the crap I’ve faced in my lifetime I ended up being saved by the “Redemption of Music”.