People who know me are always surprised (and laugh!) when they learn I was a shy, quiet, skinny wallflower growing up. Raised in a Navy family, we moved on a regular basis, so I was always the new kid, the stranger, and my shyness got worse with each move.

“So what happened?” someone will ask with a puzzled look on their face. I discovered music. Growing up in the Bay Area, music was all around me. My fifth grade teacher, Mr. Connell, took us to the San Francisco Symphony, and my sixth grade teacher, Miss Connelly, played folk music all day. But it was our school janitor, George, who really made me see the magic in music. A large, sweet man with a long mane of pure white hair, quiet and shy himself, during his breaks and lunch he would play his violin in his office. He was a violinist with the San Francisco Symphony and when he played he was fearless, strong and free, all the things I wanted to be. I begged my parents to get me a violin and I joined the school orchestra (there were only 9 members, more of a mini-orchestra) and every day after school I’d go to George’s office, he would practice with me and together we were fearless, strong and free.

I still love music and always have a song in my head (right now it’s “Seven Days” recorded by Ron Wood). I love the release it gives me to be happy and enjoy the sweetness of life, to be myself ~ fearless, strong and free.

SEVEN DAYS
by Bob Dylan

Seven days, seven more days she’ll be comin’
I’ll be waiting at the station for her to arrive
Seven more days, all I gotta do is survive

She been gone ever since I been a child
Ever since I seen her smile, I ain’t forgotten her eyes
She had a face that could outshine the sun in the skies
I been good, I been good while I been waitin’
Maybe guilty of hesitatin’, I just been holdin’ on
Seven more days, all that’ll be gone

There’s kissing in the valley
Thieving in the alley
Fighting every inch of the way
Trying to be tender
With somebody I remember
In a night that’s always brighter’n the day

Seven days, seven more days that are connected
Just like I expected, she’ll be comin’ on forth
My beautiful comrade from the north

There’s kissing in the valley
Thieving in the alley
Fighting every inch of the way
Trying to be tender
With somebody I remember
In a night that’s always brighter’n the day