A couple of years ago I got to attend a performance from one of my heroes, William Shatner. The show was called "Shatner's World: We Just Live In It". Aside from just being an amazingly entertaining walk-through of his life, one message resonated with me through out the entire performance: SAY YES TO THINGS! about half way through the performance the light bulb came on. He's had a pretty fun and amazing career doing pretty much whatever because he DIDN'T SAY NO. He wasn't afraid to jump into a project, regardless of the outcome. He wasn't ever doing things because it was going to take him somewhere. He just did them because he thought it sounded like fun. And how can you go wrong if you're just going through your life having fun? I wish I would have seen this performance ages ago. After that, I stopped saying no. Even if I felt I wasn't ready. Even if I was scared out of my mind, I said yes, and then I got prepared to do the thing. And then I did the thing, and it was AWESOME!
I've had such a long hard battle with stage fright that it's taken me until just in the past couple of years to really come out of my shell. It wasn't that long ago that if you and I were sitting in a room and you asked me to play a song for you I would have instantly become terrified and immediately said no. You may have said "pretty please," you may have even begged a little, but the response was still the same. There was no way in HELL I was going to sing for you because I was absolutely terrified. What's funny about this is that before I moved to Texas I was in a band for several years - you would think that I would have gotten over that, but performing by myself was so scary that I let my fear overcome me. Well, NO MORE! No longer will I let my fear stand in my way! I'm ready to tackle the next thing so bring it!
Many of you have been following my journey for a long time now, and a good portion of you have played a major role in the continuation of my musical pursuits and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Had it not been for all of your kind words and encouragement I would not be where I am today.