How I found Jason
By Jason Garneau
You are nervous. You cannot speak a sentence without stuttering more times than you can count. They call your name, it’s your time now, the light is shining on the whole stage but you still feel like it’s only on you out there. You are not stuttering anymore, not nervous. In fact, you feel like a new person. The life you live at home, in classrooms and in the hallways is now gone. Or it’s someplace else, just not here.
As you start to perform with your friend that you just met on the bus ride home, not even 4 weeks ago, you start to get into it. You knew you could sing all your life, you posted on social media, but this is your first big performance, just you, your friend, two guitars, one microphone, and a school talent show. The crowd consists of teachers and students from each grade, Faculty, freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.
You finish the song that you spent a week and a half practicing in the closet of your music teacher's classroom because that's where it’s the quietest (you also squeezed in some practice on the phone after school). You’re not expecting much of a reception, but as you start to walk off the stage you hear the stunning roar from all those people. You pause and think to yourself, “I made it.” But at the end of the day this is high school. You’re not playing Gillette Stadium at a 7 p.m. show with 64,628 people watching you. No, this is a high school auditorium with just about 200-250 people fitting in it.
OK, it is a big deal for you.
You see, growing up you never had a chance to really shine. Sure you're talented, you can sing, you did dance as a child, you have a pretty solid following on social media for your music. After that talent show you start to become more recognized around school, everyone loves your voice. But that was the first time you really could show people what you could do. You had moved around a lot, went to one school for kindergarten, moved to Maine for grades 1-6, then moved to Auburn for 7th grade, and now you're here, in Poland, your latest stop beginning in 9th grade.
Music has always been in the fabric of your life. Your older brother did theater at his old school and starred in almost every musical he did there. Your dad loved folk and old country music, your mom loves rock/pop/old rock music; everyone in your family is connected in some way to music. And you, you love everything about music, all genres, you even play guitar, harmonica, some piano, and learned music theory more times than you can count.
Quarter note=120, 120 bpm(beats per minute), 3 / 4 time, three quarter notes( or anything combo of notes that equals that) in every measure, there are 4 measures in a bar!
There …. you just learned something. Congrats, that'll be 10 dollars per month for Jason’s music lessons! Kidding, kidding, kidding.
That’s his name, Jason, the kid I've been talking about this whole time. Jason’s never been the popular kid in school. He’s not captain of the football team, he’s very quiet in class, always has one airpod in his ear during class and two in the hallways. He keeps to himself a lot, just like at home, where he's always in his room playing games, playing guitar, doing homework. Some people think he’s sad, needs some help. But the truth is, he’s at peace, he doesn't need a big posse of people with him to make him happy, he doesn’t need a new girlfriend every two months.
Jason is a high school junior now, two big years have passed by since that performance, including one other talent show during his Sophomore year. He does theater, aka a way to escape reality even more. And even better, it’s musical theater!
What he wants his Knight Nation peers to know is that it doesn't take a big posse, or popularity, to be “cool” or happy. All it takes is to be yourself, period. Get yourself out there if you’re comfortable and exit your comfort zone now and then. Jason’s way of showing that is music. Only you know what your way can be.
Oh yeah, Jason also loves to write. It brings him comfort. And if that’s not your thing, and your thing is not music or sports or theater, well … who cares? It's you, key word, YOU, your own person. Take a breath and start the journey to find you.
By Jason Garneau
You are nervous. You cannot speak a sentence without stuttering more times than you can count. They call your name, it’s your time now, the light is shining on the whole stage but you still feel like it’s only on you out there. You are not stuttering anymore, not nervous. In fact, you feel like a new person. The life you live at home, in classrooms and in the hallways is now gone. Or it’s someplace else, just not here.
As you start to perform with your friend that you just met on the bus ride home, not even 4 weeks ago, you start to get into it. You knew you could sing all your life, you posted on social media, but this is your first big performance, just you, your friend, two guitars, one microphone, and a school talent show. The crowd consists of teachers and students from each grade, Faculty, freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.
You finish the song that you spent a week and a half practicing in the closet of your music teacher's classroom because that's where it’s the quietest (you also squeezed in some practice on the phone after school). You’re not expecting much of a reception, but as you start to walk off the stage you hear the stunning roar from all those people. You pause and think to yourself, “I made it.” But at the end of the day this is high school. You’re not playing Gillette Stadium at a 7 p.m. show with 64,628 people watching you. No, this is a high school auditorium with just about 200-250 people fitting in it.
OK, it is a big deal for you.
You see, growing up you never had a chance to really shine. Sure you're talented, you can sing, you did dance as a child, you have a pretty solid following on social media for your music. After that talent show you start to become more recognized around school, everyone loves your voice. But that was the first time you really could show people what you could do. You had moved around a lot, went to one school for kindergarten, moved to Maine for grades 1-6, then moved to Auburn for 7th grade, and now you're here, in Poland, your latest stop beginning in 9th grade.
Music has always been in the fabric of your life. Your older brother did theater at his old school and starred in almost every musical he did there. Your dad loved folk and old country music, your mom loves rock/pop/old rock music; everyone in your family is connected in some way to music. And you, you love everything about music, all genres, you even play guitar, harmonica, some piano, and learned music theory more times than you can count.
Quarter note=120, 120 bpm(beats per minute), 3 / 4 time, three quarter notes( or anything combo of notes that equals that) in every measure, there are 4 measures in a bar!
There …. you just learned something. Congrats, that'll be 10 dollars per month for Jason’s music lessons! Kidding, kidding, kidding.
That’s his name, Jason, the kid I've been talking about this whole time. Jason’s never been the popular kid in school. He’s not captain of the football team, he’s very quiet in class, always has one airpod in his ear during class and two in the hallways. He keeps to himself a lot, just like at home, where he's always in his room playing games, playing guitar, doing homework. Some people think he’s sad, needs some help. But the truth is, he’s at peace, he doesn't need a big posse of people with him to make him happy, he doesn’t need a new girlfriend every two months.
Jason is a high school junior now, two big years have passed by since that performance, including one other talent show during his Sophomore year. He does theater, aka a way to escape reality even more. And even better, it’s musical theater!
What he wants his Knight Nation peers to know is that it doesn't take a big posse, or popularity, to be “cool” or happy. All it takes is to be yourself, period. Get yourself out there if you’re comfortable and exit your comfort zone now and then. Jason’s way of showing that is music. Only you know what your way can be.
Oh yeah, Jason also loves to write. It brings him comfort. And if that’s not your thing, and your thing is not music or sports or theater, well … who cares? It's you, key word, YOU, your own person. Take a breath and start the journey to find you.