Patience is a Virtue

Life can get crazy sometimes. Everyone knows the feeling where things slowly accumulate in your schedule and then BAM: you are feeling overwhelmed, out of control of your life, and lost in your list of tasks and duties and thoughts. It’s the feeling I have almost every week of my life (excuse my dramatics).

Yet when life gets hard-pressed, there is always something we turn to for comfort, relaxation, therapy. Some of us turn to reading, netflix, running, meditation. I turn to my most prized possession; my pride and joy. When I am feeling lost, I find my guitar.

My guitar is an Academy 10e Taylor. It’s wide, dreadnought body, smooth spruce top, and shimmering rosette make playing so much more enjoyable. As I strum a chord, or even pick just one note, the resonance and tone of the instrument give me a sense of accomplishment and pride every single time. “This is my guitar” I think to myself as I play for hours and hours on end.

The sense of pride and accomplishment I feel, however, comes from an entire year of waiting, working, and patience. The journey of getting my guitar was a long and hard one.

I started playing guitar my sophomore year of high school. I decided to stop dreaming about learning to play the guitar and actually make it happen. My dad, who is my guitar inspiration, gave me one of his Yamahas to start out on. A year and a half later I decided I needed one of my own, but little did I know the actual process of obtaining my dream guitar.

I had my mind set on a Martin guitar. The most prestigious and popular acoustic guitar brand (although it depends on who you ask), some of the greatest guitarists of all time played on a Martin guitar at one time or another, and that’s what I thought I needed. Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, James Taylor, Ed Sheeran, and more influential artists all had a Martin. It must be the best, right?

So I researched my heart out, looking for a Martin that fit my style, my purpose, and my price range (some Martins can run up to two thousand dollars). I had a list of things to decide, such as different features, type of wood, and whether I should get an acoustic electric. Finding one that I wanted was half of the battle.

The other half was waiting. I can’t tell you how many babysitting shifts I had to work to even get close to the price. It was a year of working, getting gift cards on holidays and birthdays, deciding if I could go out to dinner with friends, and a lot of patience. All I wanted was to play on a smooth sounding, resonant guitar like my favorite artists played on when they made their record breaking songs.

A year and one month later I had finally saved up enough money. I went to Guitar Center with my sister and my dad and I found the Martin that I wanted. However, my dad had a different idea.

“Why don’t you ask someone who works here what they think?”

Didn’t he understand I just wanted my guitar already? I had done my research, I had everything I wanted in mind and I had the guitar of my dreams sitting there in front of me.

Despite my feelings, I reluctantly asked an employee who worked at guitar center what his preferred type of guitar was. He said he always went with a Taylor.

This was the worst news to me because Taylor Guitars were in fact the rival guitar to Martins. But after the employee picked up a Taylor and played the most amazing blues lick I’ve ever heard, my heart was sold on a Taylor. And that’s what I left the store with.

I learned from this experience that hard work really does pay off and keeping an open mind can lead to the greatest decisions. My guitar really is my prized possession.

Through all of my practices, rehearsals, retreats, music festivals and more, when life gets crazy I always have my guitar. The story behind how I got my guitar and the meaning behind its powerful therapy for me will always live on as I keep playing. I am thankful for the fact that when I am lost, I can find my guitar.