Prologue: A Music Journey Begins

Before we get into any big stuff, I'd like to talk about my journey to become a music technology student. I find that it's best to start all the way from the beginning. Music has been such an important part of my life; it has been a constant since my childhood days and I don't even know where to start with this.

The very first time I've ever consciously played a musical instrument must have been like when I was five years old, and that was just my dad teaching me how to play the "Happy Birthday Song" on the rickety, old piano in my grandfather's house. I think that might have been what kickstarted my love for playing and listening to music. After my parents bought me my own electronic piano to play at home at the age of seven, I was absolutely hooked. Day and night, I relished the sounds of my piano-playing; I admit, I sounded terrible while I was starting out, and my parents probably thought it was annoyingly endearing.

As I grew older, I was given various opportunities at school to enhance my music learning experience, but for some reason, I declined earlier on, to my detriment. You see, aside from the piano, my parents were also fond of putting me through singing competitions because of my voice (which puberty put a damper on), so I might have just gotten tired of it. It wasn't until high school did I finally take my school up on those piano lessons they were offering, and oh, how I enjoyed it all. It was a chance to learn, communicate with fellow music students, and show off my skills.

While all that was going on, I also started getting into electronic music during my sophomore year in 2013 thanks to a certain duo called Daft Punk, one of my biggest inspirations as to why I'm currently taking a music technology course. It was then that I began playing around with computer software like Audacity and various iOS apps to make music, or at least make simple remixes of existing songs.

One of my biggest regrets of the previous decade was choosing a college course that I was unable to handle instead of doing what I would've loved. Upon my graduation, I chose to enroll in a course in the medical side of things in the hopes of becoming a doctor some day, all because my grades were high and because I was an overachiever who was dead set on becoming "great." After receiving a healthy dose of reality, I took some time to reorient myself and decided that I was, in fact, free to pursue what I wanted instead of what society demanded.

So there you go, a brief history of how I got to where I am now. Looking back, if there was any lesson for me to learn based on my experiences, it's that you should be true to yourself, and that you shouldn't let anything or anyone compromise who you are.