Day 16: Ukulele & Me

About seven or eight years ago I moved to Hawaii from what used to be a small city in Texas and I stayed in Hawaii for three years. I remember walking down this long street from the apartment I used to live to the bus stop and back after school with my mom and I just recall being in such disbelief that I am able to say that I live in Hawaii. My mind could not wrap around that idea just yet. In middle school we had to take a music class and in music class we learned how to play the ukulele. Although they were just brief lessons of learning few chords and strumming, I had really enjoyed the experience. The teacher was incredible and supportive, his passion for music clearly was presented in his teaching which probably made me like that class a lot more than the rest of the students who took this lesson a bit more lighthearted. In that same year for Christmas I had asked my parents for an ukulele of my own with the idea that I was going to continue playing and building up with what I have learned from class. That Christmas morning I did get my ukulele and I was in awe that my ukulele was sitting there under the tree waiting to play. I picked up the ukulele and I started strumming and just like that I got discouraged. I did not sound good at all! Annoyed I kind of just put my ukulele away in my closet and it kind of just ended there.

Fast forward those seven or eights year, before I left for college I saw my ukulele sitting in my closet (I have moved back from Hawaii to Texas) and I knew I could just not leave it there to gather dust. Although frankly that was all it was doing even when I lived in that house and I took my ukulele with me to college. For some reason I knew that I was going to be stress, my anxiety was not going to cooperate with me on some days, and feeling homesick were all emotions I was going to feel while I am living on my own (which at first they were) and if I started playing my ukulele again I would get to hear the beautiful singsong voice and find a way to escape the anxiety. Through out my first year of college, whenever my roommate would go to work or when I had my room to myself I would get my ukulele and just strum. It did not matter if I was just strumming or plucking random chords, all I wanted was to listen to my ukulele. I fiddle around with my ukulele more than I actually do play songs because I get annoyed easily still when I cannot get the strumming pattern, chords, and vocals down for a song. And from there on, I felt more at ease and I gained a little more confidence in myself too. I never really understood what was the big hoopla in playing an instrument but now I do. You create this bond with your instrument and when you do not feel like talking to anyone you seem to escape into making music. So maybe if I continued to play my ukulele when I was in middle school I would of been a better player today but at least I did not entirely give up. I can go for hours playing my ukulele and I am totally okay with that.

Do you have an instrument? What do you play?



xx Chavelita