Face Your Fears
Audio Transcript:
I believe a person can learn something new at any age. Within the last few years, I’ve started taking stock of my firsts during the year. For example, this year I learned to paddleboard, I tried indoor rock climbing, and I even played my first virtual reality game. It was a zombie apocalypse shooting game. Those zombies looked so real. The game started with the zombies slowly limping toward you and then they got faster until they were charging straight at you. Teaming up with other players with a common goal to protect the energy core, or whatever it was, was thrilling and exhilarating.
I put 2400 miles on my motorcycle, which was a first for riding that distance on a road trip. I even rode across the Bridge of the Gods, which is a steel, grated bridge built in the 1920s. This impressive bridge goes across the Columbia River between Cascade Locks, Oregon and Washington state near Bonneville. This bridge makes a lot of motorcyclists uncomfortable, especially in the rain. But, I did it! Yeah, it was sunny.
This year, just a few months ago, I learned to mow the lawn. Never did that before in my princess life.
To me, these things were new and fun. And, I wouldn’t say they were scary. Ok, the zombies were scary!
But, by far, the hardest first for me this year, was singing karaoke with a group of my friends at a real karaoke bar, and not a family member’s rec room. It’s crazy, I know. I love to sing, but it is so intimidating to sing with professional-class singers, which is what a lot of my friends seem to be...at least in my mind.
<Karl sings in this section.>
For some people, singing comes naturally. And for others, while they won’t win any awards with their singing, they have the guts to get up in front of people and give it all they’ve got. Now Karl, for instance, he has a beautiful baritone voice and doesn’t shy away from singing. He can sing songs from Phantom of the Opera to Hamilton. And it is because of him that I love singing. In the wee days of dating, we spent many a road trip blasting Les Mis in the car while singing our hearts out.
This fall, I went to a work conference and one of the keynote speakers was Lynda Barry, an author and artist. She’s also a commentator on NPR. She spoke on creativity and she started off her talk by saying that she was nervous about public speaking so she starts every talk by singing a song in front of the crowd. And she did just that.
She also talked about art and how most children love to draw. Some of us, along the way, decide that we’re not good enough. We may have been told by someone that we’re not a good artist or we may compare ourselves to the masters and realize we just don’t measure up to Picasso, Monet, or Kahlo. We stop drawing and we tell ourselves that we aren’t artists. I’m sure that same thing happens to people in probably every area of life.
As I reflect on my own life, I can think of a couple of events that may have had an impact on my singing confidence. But, I come from a legacy of singers. One of my grandmothers, for example, sang lead in a Russian Ladies Choir. Some of the songs were somber dirges, but hey, it’s still singing.
Every Christmas season, we have a tradition of watching Elf with friends. I love the part where Buddy the elf tells Jovie that singing is like talking, except longer and louder, and you move your voice up and down. To which Jovie replies that she can sing, she just chooses not to, especially in front of other people. And then Buddy says, and oh, I love this part, if you can sing alone, you can sing in front of other people. There’s no difference. Of course, Jovie disagrees and says there’s a BIG difference. Hmmm, I agree with Jovie. But, in Jovie’s case, she has an amazing voice...and yet, it would seem that singing in front of people is not her thing.
<Karl and Tamara sing in this section.>
I wouldn’t say, for me, that being in front of people is not my thing, but I might have claimed that at the Karaoke club way back in July. Fear was my thing. I sat on the sidelines watching various people sing and it wasn’t till the end when Karl was singing a duet, to which I knew all the words, that I so badly wanted to join him. He called me over at the beginning of the song and I shook my head. The birthday girl, who also has a beautiful singing voice, jumped in to sing with him, but it turned out that she didn’t know the words. There I was, sitting at the side, singing all the words to myself. Karl called me up again. This time, I took a deep breath and got up to join him. While I couldn’t reach half the notes, because let’s face it, who can reach some of Dolly Parton’s notes, I did it. Boy did I feel good. And while I don’t think I was as bad a singer as I thought, I felt like Cameron Diaz’s character named Kimberly in My Best Friend’s wedding, Julia Roberts’ character Julianne attempted to break up her best friend’s engagement by taking his fiancee Kimberly to karaoke knowing full well that she didn’t enjoy karaoke. And, while Kimberly couldn’t hold a note, she pulled it off gracefully with a big smile that ended with the whole bar cheering and encouraging her to sing. I felt Kimberly’s triumph! And I was flying high for at least a week after that.
As you say goodbye to 2018, take time to enjoy your successes. What did you do for the first time this year? Just imagine all the things you can do in 2019!
Happy new year! Feel free to comment below or email me at Tamara@freetobelovely.com.
This year, just a few months ago, I learned to mow the lawn. Never did that before in my princess life.
To me, these things were new and fun. And, I wouldn’t say they were scary. Ok, the zombies were scary!
But, by far, the hardest first for me this year, was singing karaoke with a group of my friends at a real karaoke bar, and not a family member’s rec room. It’s crazy, I know. I love to sing, but it is so intimidating to sing with professional-class singers, which is what a lot of my friends seem to be...at least in my mind.
<Karl sings in this section.>
For some people, singing comes naturally. And for others, while they won’t win any awards with their singing, they have the guts to get up in front of people and give it all they’ve got. Now Karl, for instance, he has a beautiful baritone voice and doesn’t shy away from singing. He can sing songs from Phantom of the Opera to Hamilton. And it is because of him that I love singing. In the wee days of dating, we spent many a road trip blasting Les Mis in the car while singing our hearts out.
This fall, I went to a work conference and one of the keynote speakers was Lynda Barry, an author and artist. She’s also a commentator on NPR. She spoke on creativity and she started off her talk by saying that she was nervous about public speaking so she starts every talk by singing a song in front of the crowd. And she did just that.
She also talked about art and how most children love to draw. Some of us, along the way, decide that we’re not good enough. We may have been told by someone that we’re not a good artist or we may compare ourselves to the masters and realize we just don’t measure up to Picasso, Monet, or Kahlo. We stop drawing and we tell ourselves that we aren’t artists. I’m sure that same thing happens to people in probably every area of life.
As I reflect on my own life, I can think of a couple of events that may have had an impact on my singing confidence. But, I come from a legacy of singers. One of my grandmothers, for example, sang lead in a Russian Ladies Choir. Some of the songs were somber dirges, but hey, it’s still singing.
Every Christmas season, we have a tradition of watching Elf with friends. I love the part where Buddy the elf tells Jovie that singing is like talking, except longer and louder, and you move your voice up and down. To which Jovie replies that she can sing, she just chooses not to, especially in front of other people. And then Buddy says, and oh, I love this part, if you can sing alone, you can sing in front of other people. There’s no difference. Of course, Jovie disagrees and says there’s a BIG difference. Hmmm, I agree with Jovie. But, in Jovie’s case, she has an amazing voice...and yet, it would seem that singing in front of people is not her thing.
<Karl and Tamara sing in this section.>
I wouldn’t say, for me, that being in front of people is not my thing, but I might have claimed that at the Karaoke club way back in July. Fear was my thing. I sat on the sidelines watching various people sing and it wasn’t till the end when Karl was singing a duet, to which I knew all the words, that I so badly wanted to join him. He called me over at the beginning of the song and I shook my head. The birthday girl, who also has a beautiful singing voice, jumped in to sing with him, but it turned out that she didn’t know the words. There I was, sitting at the side, singing all the words to myself. Karl called me up again. This time, I took a deep breath and got up to join him. While I couldn’t reach half the notes, because let’s face it, who can reach some of Dolly Parton’s notes, I did it. Boy did I feel good. And while I don’t think I was as bad a singer as I thought, I felt like Cameron Diaz’s character named Kimberly in My Best Friend’s wedding, Julia Roberts’ character Julianne attempted to break up her best friend’s engagement by taking his fiancee Kimberly to karaoke knowing full well that she didn’t enjoy karaoke. And, while Kimberly couldn’t hold a note, she pulled it off gracefully with a big smile that ended with the whole bar cheering and encouraging her to sing. I felt Kimberly’s triumph! And I was flying high for at least a week after that.
As you say goodbye to 2018, take time to enjoy your successes. What did you do for the first time this year? Just imagine all the things you can do in 2019!
Happy new year! Feel free to comment below or email me at Tamara@freetobelovely.com.
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