On my guitar

It's been a while since I have updated my blog, and I apologize for that! I have been quite busy with school and lab, as the quarter is winding down.

I figured I wanted to write this blog on something that I have picked up once more - my guitar, after a hiatus of nearly 9 years. I remember my mom taking me to the music store when I was 6, and buying me my classical guitar. It was my first musical instrument, and for some reason, it feels even more poetic given that my mom bought it when she was doing her Ph.D. Now some 15 years later, when I play the guitar, it gives another anchor to my earliest memories of being with my mom during her Ph.D years back in Michigan.

Interestingly enough, I don't really remember why I stopped playing the guitar - it was at a confluence of my time with me starting middle school, swimming, academics, and puberty. Things were rapidly changing, and yeah, the guitar took a back seat. I also have a strong hunch that it was probably my first act of teenage rebellion against my mom!

But some 8 years later, nearing my 21st birthday, and much closer to worrying about taxes than worrying if I am cool enough - the guitar has somehow come back to a part of my life. I play it a few times a week, and what has been really surprising to me is how much I actually enjoy playing it. The guitar is all hands, and I have found out in recent years is that I really enjoy working with my hands either through the building, machining, or creating things.

I am having fun picking up songs - and I think my progress over this quarter from playing simple chord progressions to now playing semi-complicated fingerstyle arrangements has been a real source of joy. It engages my brain with something else that isn't grad school or life. I love to practice alone, because, at that moment, the world is not so big anymore, and not so complicated or harsh - it's only me and my guitar, and that I can understand.

Music for me has been special, mainly because you don't need to comprehend words to appreciate sounds - my hearing loss is one of the reasons conversations/podcasts are quite difficult for me to get engaged. And when the notes start coming together to form a song or melody, and my fingers start to move naturally on the fretboard, I know that I am in the present:

I play therefore I am.