I haven’t always been shy. As a child, I sang and created songs from anything I saw or heard. My favorite place to perform was in the shower, where I would just belt it out. One time, when I was in kindergarten, I was singing while using the restroom and as soon as I stepped out there was a mom who was smiling at me. “That was good! Can you sing for my ringtone?” she asked. I was really shocked, but thought it was a really funny encounter. I also recall how during every Christmas party with my family, I would hog the microphone and just sing my heart out. My favorite thing to sing during these family gatherings was “Oops!… I Did It Again” by Britney Spears—very appropriate for a seven-year-old to sing at a family gathering, I know!
Later on in life, I started to make covers with my cousin on my computer. The first song we sang was Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning.” It was the first song I learned on the ukulele, and probably one of the only songs I still remember how to play. By the time I got a Facebook page, I started posting covers. They still entertain me every time I watch them and have become a kind of diary of my life from those days. The first cover I post onto Facebook was “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele.
As I started to post covers, I got requests from my friends to posts certain songs and I really enjoyed the idea that they listened and wanted to hear me sing more. At the same time, I was in my middle school choir, which was pretty small (there were only 3 people). Being in the choir at church was the first time I learned about harmonies and harmonizing, and a lot of other snazzy music terms. It wasn’t until I entered high school and joined the choir there that I really appreciated how shameless I was as a child—I would sing anything, anywhere, and I didn’t have a care in the world about what people thought. Although, now when I listen back to my old covers, I always cringe. Still, I looked like I had so much fun making covers, and they remind me that one of the biggest reasons I appreciate music so much is that it has always allowed me to express myself and explain how I feel without having to explicitly spell everything out for people.
