Words from the start of Backstreet Boys’ “Lose It All” chorus are stuck in my mind as I write my first blog. This might not initially make sense and might not sound like the most appealing or intriguing prelude to the first personal blog I have the guts over fear (see what I did there?) to publish in my life. Still, I have my reasons to go for precisely these words and give them space to make an entrance, as I perceive this one step as one of the top ten most tremendous challenges I’ve faced thus far and I honour these lyrics as some of the most powerful ones to encourage me to take actions instead of thinking things over and over again.
I’d bet those who know me slightly think of me as a rather quiet person, always trying to shy away from attention. And those who know me well know that although I tend to cautiously pick the moments to speak my mind up, sometimes I have a strong opinion on certain matters which I could defend with the greatest arsenal of words I possess.
Yet only the ones I’ve let really close to my soul’s aspirations know my passion for music despite never getting anywhere near learning the notes, playing an instrument, or composing my own work (all of these possibly coming true at a later point). Not that I want to brag but my sister would call me “Shazam-Yannie”¹, while others would know that I usually have a song on my mind during meditation or even before being able to mumble a “good morning” after waking up.
One thing, however, brings all these people together – they have all witnessed my muse outbursts about this idea which since managed to raise emotions from all sides of the spectrum – from nervousness and doubt to excitement and buoyancy. This concept has been running a marathon in my head for years and years (yes, indeed, I did mean to reference the band). In fact, the first draft post on here dates back to February 2017. And here I am now – three years, three months and a chaos of umpteen phone notes later. Can you believe it took me this long to finally hit the “Publish!” button? I barely do.
Right, let’s finally get to the point and explain why we are gathered here today… A series of circumstances led me to pick this date as my Neo (“the chosen one”²) and I truly believe there’s no better time than Victory Day to achieve this milestone of winning over my internal fear of criticism and care of what people think. Starting today, I will be publicly expressing my view on various aspects of music – lyrics, albums, eras, genres, social impact – you name it. I won’t commit to a certain level of periodicity at this stage but I pledge to always be true to my heart and freely share my thoughts about anything that makes my soul sing and keeps me up at night.
I’ll be honest in admitting sometimes my posts will probably seem contradictory as my outlooks on certain things might change. Well, at the end of the day – who and what doesn’t change? As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “Change is the only constant in life”.
Here I am, on my very own victory day, listening to today’s anthem (also known as the “Anthem of Europe”) and celebrating my version of the “Ode to Joy” – an ode to freedom, muse, inspiration, creativity and excitement. An ode which just highlighted a new chapter of my life – one note at a time ♥
P.S.: Yes, I do tend to make a lot of references to names of songs/albums/artists so you’d better start getting used to it.
P.S. 2: If you ever had the desire to learn a hobby, express yourself, take a step to do something creative – please, just do it. Don’t copy me and wait for three years and three months to make a move. It’s time to do or die, figuratively speaking.
See you down this journey. Till next time – take care 🙂
¹ Because of a rather exaggerated capability of mine to recognise songs based on humming sounds, similarly to the music recognition application Shazam.
² Reference to Neo – or “the chosen one” in the film “The Matrix”.
Author: The Music Guide
The Music Guide 