Personal Narrative

The Musician in Me

Beginning with my first year at Lynwood High School, I seemed to be part of the “unpopular kids.”  With a fresh new bowl cut and pair of glasses, I was instantly named Harry Potter.  The nickname eventually gave way to a new one: Fuzzy.  It was given to me by my fourth grade teacher for my short afro-like hair, and the name has stuck with me ever since my elementary days and has no sign of giving up.  In order to ignore this insult I turned to music and focused my energy into producing it.  Music became a passion of mine and whenever a new acquaintance came into my life, they instantly knew me by Fuzzy.  Eventually, high school paved the way for who I was, college gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself, it gave me a chance to be the person I wanted to become.  In this paper I will explain who I was in high school, the limitations it gave me, and the freedom I eventually found in college.

Walking into my first day of school, all I remember hearing was, “Hey Look! It’s Harry Potter!”  It didn’t bother me much, mainly because I had no idea of who he was.  Eventually the name faded away as my hair grew longer.   That’s when Fuzzy, which I had previously been known as, made a comeback.  Although I was given this name years ago, it quickly became annoying as many people hardly ever new my real name.  Variations such as fuzz nuts, the fuzz, and fuzzer were just a few of the names that were constantly thrown at me.  In turn, I decided to dedicate most of my time into learning how to play the guitar.  I would easily get lost in the music.  Music was my wonderland.  I wasn’t Daniel anymore, I was Fuzzy.  I decided to personify this new self through music. 

Music was all I cared about in high school.  Coming home from school I would make a daily trip into my sanctuary to get lost in my musical wonderland to shut out the world outside.  In truth, my love of music began in middle school when I dabbled with guitar riffs to impress my friends.  But in high school, I decided to take a more serious approach and switch up to my newfound instrument: Drums.  Guitarists seemed to have sprung out all over the city at the same time I picked up this instrument so I chose what almost no one else was doing which was drums.  Now, I had to keep my drums in a stable location as it was nearly impossible to be mobile with them.  My garage, where I decided to place my drums, became my sacred lair mainly because my parents hardly allowed me to go out.  Furthermore, this didn’t help out my street credibility at all.  Once I had ran out of excuses to give to my friends, I became the timid, momma’s boy.  As lame as it seemed I found a way to make the best of it.  If I couldn’t go out with my friends, then my friends could come to my house instead.  Thus, jamming out became an everyday thing between me and my friends.  Soon after, we created our first band.  No name and no real motivation to create new music, we became a cover band.  It began with Iron Maiden covers and eventually moved on to bands such as Pink Floyd and The Black Dahlia Murder.  Interested in improving my drumming skills, I decided to join the school’s drum line.  I had no idea what that was or that it was a part of the marching band.  Eventually, this new hobby became my new high school life.  Although, in my head this seemed like a good way to improve my popularity, all it did was make me seem like a band geek.

Senior year was a time of slacking off, I had nothing to look forward to.  Yet, being one of the top heads of the drum line and basically being able to do whatever I wanted, I decided to just shut down.  I got lazy and didn’t feel like I had to do much work anymore.  Up to this point I was a straight-A student and I felt like I knew all I needed to know.  Being near the top of my class didn’t help much either as I became lazy.  I became more interested in having fun rather than sitting at home doing my homework.  Finally, I was able to enjoy my high school life without much criticism from friends or family.  I began playing soccer which meant more time to have fun and less time to study.  Video games were a major part of my life as I had always been a geek.  Knowing I was soon to graduate, I spent more and more time playing games rather than completing homework.  Having easy classes didn’t help either.  I slacked off, turned in my work late, and for the first time in my educational career I began to ditch school.  Worst of all I stopped playing music, which put me in a state of confusion about my future.  Even with all this lack of motivation, I got accepted into all the California State Universities I applied to.  But, I had no real motivation to attend any college, and no college fund to pay for school.

With no job and no way of paying for a Cal State education without loans,  my best course of action was to attend a community college.  Location was a major issue as I wasn’t able to travel far.  Thus, I ended up at Long Beach City College.  Having previously thought about attending a state university, I decided to go through the general education classes, which I hated.  Choosing classes just because I was told to do so made me feel like another worker bee in a hive.  The norm is what I hated and to me higher education was just that.

The slacking off continued as I still hadn’t found my true self.  College classes made it extremely easy to not attend, but at what risk?  My grades suffered as did my motivation to continue with class.  It seemed as if I were taking the same high school classes all over again.  The same math problems, same government issues in political science, and the same scientific theories.  No matter how hard I tried to put myself in the position of a college student,  I always ended up feeling empty inside.  After all the simple GE classes that I would take, I finally looked into taking a music class.  

Digital Sampling and Recording was the beginning of the rest of my life.  At first glance, this classroom was amazing.  Old school synthesizers that ran with floppy discs, Mac computers on each station alongside mixers, and giant speakers to listen back to it all.  This was truly heaven, even if I had no idea of how to use any of it.  It felt as if I was in a studio back in the late 60’s recording a Pink Floyd album.  I had found myself again.  I have never heard such sounds before, or seen the methods been used to record and write music.  After taking this class I realized there was an increasing number of music classes being offered.

Following my passion of music eventually helped me find myself.  I felt like a new person attending college; I actually wanted to participate and learn.  Each semester was filled with nothing but music.  This led to meeting people who would eventually advance my career.  With these new friends, we created our own studio.  Following our dreams we began to create music and help other artists in need.  Every other day I would work with a new artist and style of music.  I continued to meet famous people that I’ve only heard about in magazines or on the radio such as the DJ for CunningLinguists and even Kendrick Lamar.  My musical roots began to rise once more and fill the hole in my self that needed passion.

Now, I’m moving on to bigger and better things.  College helped me reinvent myself.  High school limited my dreams as the only focus the district had in mind for me was graduating, and not having much arts in the process.  Never lose your passion.  Losing my interest in music created a void in my life, and it took me some time to realize what I once did at a young age was what I wanted to do until my old age: music.