The rush, the emotions, the excitement, the nerves. These are just a few of the feelings I experience when I play on the @4410 stage at CMC. It’s like a second home to me and it’s the place where I know I will always be accepted.

Guitar always interested me because of the way it looked, sounded, and just the overall feel of it. One of the reasons I wanted to start playing was because I saw my elementary school music teacher play it and it always amazed me the way he played. I got my first guitar in 3rd grade for Christmas and I was in love with it. However, I didn’t start playing until about 7th grade. I was always bullied in elementary school for the way I looked and sounded, so when I started taking lessons I didn’t talk to anybody besides my guitar teacher.

Of course, they gave me the most energetic guitar teacher, Mr. Mike Harrington. Once he found out I could sing, he promised me that one day I was going to be up on that stage singing and playing. I was reluctant at first and so scared that what if he was right. I didn’t want to be up on the stage at first because I feared what people were going to think about me and what is was going to do to my life. Little did I know that it was going to change it.

Once I got my first song down, I signed up for my very first rock camp. Being put into a band with a bunch of strangers was very nerve racking and scary. Once I got the hang of it though, it was a piece of cake. I performed for the first time in the @4410 stage and to be honest I was so scared, but I got through it with the amazing words of Jerry and my band mates. I will never forget the first time I performed by myself. I was a Battlefield High School open mic night and I was shaking the whole time but I got through it with the help of my new friends at CMC. I have made so many new friends at CMC and I will be grateful to them forever for opening my eyes to showing me my full potential.

My goal is to either get into Belmont University in Nashville or Shenandoah University right here in Virginia. I’m not sure what is going to happen in the future but I do know that I’m going to have a forever home and forever friends at CMC. Thank you, CMC, and @4410 for forever changing my life.

-Kayla!