Volleyblog #2 - laura sings for you...cuz she loves you

So, it's my turn to volley the blog post in the Volleyblog game i'm playing with Paige. (for more info on Volleyblogging see Teeni over at Vaguetarian Tearoom)

Here's the recap:
it started with this post, then i wrote this one in response; initiating the volleyblog game. Paige volleyed back with this post right here, and now onto my response:

I'm basing my entire entry on one sentence from her post that inspired me:

I assumed that once in University I would magically fall into a career that I would love forever

Oh how i can feel the truth ring out in that sentence. All my life i wanted to be a singer. Sing sing sing is all i wanted to do. One time, when i was in my early teens, my friend Jenny's granddad was driving me home and he asked me what i wanted to do when i grew up. i told him my plan full of naivete: "I'm going to go to university and take music and then i'll become a famous singer", i remember the moment of silence that followed, and the creak of his old weathered hands on the leather steering wheel. He looked over at me and said: "Just because you take music in university doesn't mean you'll be a famous singer."


I remembered his words, even as i was auditioning for the music program, even as i was failing out of Theory and working my ass off to stay afloat. i remembered these words as i wrote paper after paper about harmonic lines in fugues. i remembered his words as i quietly and tearily told my voice instructor that i was dropping out of university. The only time those haunting words didn't follow me around was when i was actually on stage and singing.

it was a painful realization for me - that i may not be a famous singer. But, i didn't really want to sing opera, i enjoyed singing musical theatre, and i found i loved singing the old jazz standards... but what i wanted was to sing rock and roll. Sigh. how cliche - i wanna be a rock star, it's true.

i still may. but not by going to university. All university gave me was a thirty thousand dollar debt, broken dreams, and a fuckload of stress. When i left the school, i felt the weight lifted off me - it was amazing. People ask me if i'll ever go back, and the answer is always no. If you've ever felt a weight like that lift off of you, you'd be reluctant to go back too. i can still sing, i don't need a university degree to tell me i can. i can still sing. *

* you don't need to download it if you don't want to. You can just hit play and stream it from the interweb.