Get Back Up

I just got back from a weekend in New York with Kelly and her family. We were taking her sister, Jamie, back up to school and, while we were in the area, took a couple days to snowboard. It was a lot of fun and, since I haven't posted anything in a while, I feel like I should somehow relate snowboarding to music...

So here's what I've got:

The most important thing you can learn from snowboarding is to get back up. When you fall, you can either quit or you can get back up. Those are your only two choices and, as the case is with snowboarding, you are faced with that choice often.

See, snowboarding has one of the highest learning curves of any sport. If you didn't learn to snowboard when you learned to walk, tough luck. You WILL fall and you WILL get hurt. And it will take a long time until you are "good" at it. Through all of that, most people give up. You get a taste of snowboarding that is associated with catching your edge and having your head slammed into the ground. It's not a good feeling, but it is part of the learning process.

Me, being the adrenaline junkie that I am, have gone through all sorts of injuries in my learning process. I like to say that I was "raised" by skiers, as most of the guys I hung out with while I was learning were all experienced skiers. Experienced, meaning that I was constantly being pushed to go faster, steeper, and bigger than I would have liked. This led to injuries on all parts of my body - a fractured tailbone, unknown injuries to my knees and wrists, a mild concussion or two, etc.

When you're laying on the ground, wondering if you can move your legs and arms, you feel like quitting; like it's not worth it. Then you get up and do it again (sometimes after days or weeks of recovery). It's either because you've got masochistic tendencies or because you're passionate about what you do.

The first day we were out, Kelly and I took Jamie. Maybe she only got in 4 or 5 runs over the course of the day, but she ended with some accomplishments. Being able to link a few carves together is impressive, regardless of the swollen knees and sore appendages that it took to get there.

So this is where it ties to music. You WILL write crappy songs. You WILL play crappy shows. You'll hear people that can play circles around you. And you can either push on or you can give up. But if you're going to push on, do so intentionally. Bounce ideas off of friends, study your recordings, watch video of your performances. Go out with some intention on getting better. If you settle for what you're failing at, you'll just fall again and again.

And seriously, we don't need people who put out the same sound and the same performance over and over again. Know that it's okay to fall. You just have to get back up and keep moving forward.