Two Years

This blog has a few purposes. One is documentation. A journey isn’t a journey unless it’s well documented. I believe this. Another is clarity. Processing. Another is feedback and encouragement, and maybe, if necessary, discouragement. A big one is practice. If I’m to travel and experience and taste and see, I want others to be able to share that with me. I want to be able to present a well written, intriguing, interesting offering.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I have made decisions about my life. The first and most important is that I’m going to live it. I don’t want to just admire people who go after what they want and live like they want to live, I want to BE that person. I’m not going to settle. I’m not going to make plans for jobs or schools or careers that I’m not interested in or passionate about just because the thing I really want to go after is so unsafe and unsure and scary. I’m embracing who I am and who God made me to be and trying to wrap my brain around the fact that God might want something big and lovely and adventurous for me. I’m owning up to my calling: I am a musician. The only career I want, the only thing I can see myself doing with my whole heart behind it is writing and singing my songs for the rest of my life. I am trying to wrap my brain around that fact that it might be an ok thing to want. I am untying my heart from the binds I’ve placed on it and letting it lead me, full on, let’s go.

I have a two year plan. It is not a two year music career starter plan, but it’s just as essential. It’s a two year tie up loose ends and be free plan. It’s a two years of self-discipline and hard work and self control plan. It’s this:

Year One
Big Idea Goal: Finish my Associates in Arts degree at Durham Tech and make good grades. To accomplish this in one year will require a heavier work load than I have been taking on, and it also means taking some summer classes which I’ve been avoiding like the plague.
Not to be Overlooked or Left Out Goals: Music music music. Writing, performing, recording, learning. Paid gigs are bonus.

Year Two
Big Idea Goal: Get a full time job. Best case scenario would be full time at the Museum. Problem with that is that there is so rarely a job opening. I can start putting the idea in higher-up’s heads now, but I have a year to cross that bridge.
Not to be Overlooked or Left Out Goals: Music, of course. Extremely important: save my money! Save it save it save it! This is crucial! This is everything! Save that money!

End of Year Two: Go backpacking through Europe. Why? Because I’ve always wanted to. Because I want to real bad. Because I’ve thought about it nearly every day for a steady year without feeling a bit differently about it. Because it would change my life. Because it would give me songs to sing. Because I want to.

After that: Dot dot dot.

This is the blog detailing the process of making this thing happen. This is the documentation of the struggles of getting through two years of the necessary to chase my dream, with only my fierce heart to drive me through it. This is a tool to help me stay mission focused. This is me marveling at the endless ways this could fail, or more importantly, how I could screw it up. But this is me going for it. Oh God. Oh God.

First steps I’ve made/have started making:

• Opening an online savings account
• Setting up piano lessons
• Outlined what courses I need to take to finish my degree and how many classes I’ll need to take each semester to get that done in a year

Steps I’m going to work on (to be followed up when completed or progress has been made):

• Set up a budget and, for once, stick to it.
• Pray my guts out.
• Discuss job likelihood with my boss.

I hope you’ll join in with me, support me, pray for me, give me feedback and suggestions etc. Thanks for reading, friends.

Some Missy Higgins:

I wanna dance the tango with chance/I wanna ride on the wire/Cos nothing gets done with dust in your gun/And nobody respects a liar/So goodbye for a while I’m off to explore/Every boundary and every door/Yeah I’m going north.