Determination. Confidence. Improvisation. Commitment. The infinite list of things I have learned runs through my head, as I prepare to audition.


People are streaming around me, reciting their scores like a broken record, to any friend who passes; but I pay them no mind. I am in a world of memories, watching them dance across my eyelids as I concentrate on serenity.

My time to audition has arrived, and I am in a world of music. I sit down, and begin to shift my fingers from one note to another, hoping that the music would stay like a perfect day, and not give way to the storm that had to be brewing on the horizon. For a split second I squeak, and a few dark clouds pop into my view, but I keep playing. Before I know it the song is done and I have been given my score sheet.

A week later I found out that I was accepted to the CMEA orchestra. When I was told the news my mind strayed the first day I got my clarinet. I tried my hardest but, I couldn't even get a shriek out of it.

I had always taken heed to my instructors directions. He repeated to my band the importance of practicing, determination, and confidence when your playing.

Unlike the rest of the kids, I listened. I struggled through hours of practice, listening to my self muddle the proper notes into shrieks; but no matter how awful I messed up I kept trying.

Playing the clarinet taught me more then I thought it ever would. All I wanted to learn was how to read the odd language of music; but through the struggles of playing, I had experienced the results of determination, confidence, improvisation, and commitment.