the invention of the radio

Lessons learned. Have you ever thought you were invincible until something put you in your place? Story time. Throughout my growing up years I have used my mouth to produce varying sounds. As a child this drove my mom to Prozac, but with time and practice I eventually was able to turn these random sounds into organized beats and melodies. The beatbox: this, for me, was like a gateway to explore different sounds and styles of music. I first saw Rahzel on TV beat-boxing to Foxy Brown rapping and I thought; "Freak, if he could do it, then so could I." So I practiced all throughout 11th and 12th grade. I would just practice whenever I would lie awake and could not sleep or was doing something mundane. Yeah I got some weird looks more than a few times. I was so into perfecting the skill that a few caught wind of it and the word got out that the attention grew like a wildfire. In high school there was a battle of the bands concert that raised money for the Red Cross hosted through my crazy awesome English teacher (She will be described in greater detail on another day). I was somewhat shy about it, but I figured you only live once and volunteered. The night of the show there were bands from all over our school and community and finally the curtains came up and there I was. I rocked it! There was a standing ovation after I left the stage. It was great. I was so shocked by how well it went. Which brings me to about 7 years later while in college. A good friend of mine is one of the most outgoing people I have ever met. In fact, he was studying to be a journalist and had aspirations of becoming an anchorman for a huge news broadcast station. Someday I'll be able to see him on TV and say to my kids "oh yeah I know that guy." Anyway, his brother had a school project where he hosted this sort of late night television show, like Conan or Leno. There was a live band and he'd have special guests. There was even musical numbers in between. He had it to the tee. He met up with me once and asked if I would like to be on his show, I agreed and mentioned about the beat-boxing talent I had. He grew excited and thought of getting others with the same abilities. Up to this point I had a secret pride about my "gift" and always thought of being the best even though my "outward modesty" wouldn't show it. The night of the show there were three others with me. They had us decide which order we'd go in. I believe I was third to perform. So the lights come on and we all sit on a couch waiting while the first one goes up. He is very decent and did a great job but I thought I had this in the bag until the second act got out there; "AY-YO HOW MANY OF YOU HEARD MY STUFF? IF NOT, AFTER I DO MY THING YOU'LL BE A FAN." Wow, such confidence. He started with the beat which sounded pretty good, he then imitated a voice on a record getting scratched, the crowd blew up with cheers and it was epic. He had the floor. How could I go up after that? No turning back now. I had a mental set list with what I would do and WAS mentally pumped and then I psyched myself and lost the fire right before going up. I went up and fell short. I even thought I saw a few heads shaking in disapproval. I was humbled and learned that I got served. I made it enough to get the sympathy cheer and that was that. I still like to imitate music but I learned something powerful that evening. . . there is always a bigger fish. Now that I remember it, the fourth act was even more insane with the skill and even the one before me looked upset to lose.