A Big Life Lesson from a Small Town

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost

We've been ignored, criticized, mocked, and written-off. Why do we persist? Why do we continue?

My friends and I are from a small town in the Midwest. To deal with the omnipresent boredom, we created a band in our late teens. It was this or drugs and alcohol. Some say band life leads to those things; but for us, we found the band to be our saving grace.

We were terrible. We couldn't play the instruments, we couldn't even read music, and we couldn't even sing. It didn't matter, we had fun together. I have to admit, we never got good; but it was fun to hang out and make a lot of noise. We were happy.

We played at school talent shows, we tried to play at open mic night at our local bar, we even tried to get people to let us play at their party. We were never hired. We never won a show. We never made it to the stage to play at a local bar. We tried; but no one wanted us because honestly we really were terrible. We persisted because it was the joy of the challenge and the dream that maybe someday we could be discovered and be famous!

We graduated high school, went to college and we were freed from our small town life. We each started to chase the dollar based on our skills and education. Yet, as financial success came to us, the joy seemed to leave us. This joyless emptiness was impalpable; but it was there.

For our 5th year high school reunion, we all met up and decided to ditch the reunion and headed to my parents house that still had our old instruments. It was like time never passed. We played and sang and made noise and had an amazing time.

So this is what I take from this experience, life goes on. We each get older but you need to foster connections with those people who are meaningful in your life to make life more than just going on. Life can be special.

If I was asked to share an important experience on BabbleStash, I would share this meaninful story will my friends and family.