use it or lose it
Whenever I doomscroll on Instagram or Twitter or whatever, there's always a bunch of people trying to give advice to twenty-somethings. Don't waste your youth, don't spend too much time on just one aspect of your life, don't forget to move your ass and stand up straight. Don't forget to use things like your spine flexibility or your hip mobility, because then you might lose them.
Well, I wish this were a post about me finally working out, but as it stands, it's about me singing.
I've always had bad stage fright, to the eternal chagrin of my parents, who would've put me in just about every type of performing art possible if they had their way. I refused to learn how to dance or play sports or do anything that demanded the use of my whole body. I learned how to play multiple instruments, but all I ever did was play and sing alone in my room. I liked music, but I only ever did it for myself.
Lately I've been trying to be better. I've been joining my friends for karaoke. I've been speaking and singing and screaming more, and I joined my major's choir after so many days of thinking about it. Sometimes I still feel like I didn't think about it enough, though. There's just so many negative things that swirl around in my brain whenever I think about performing. I never know what to do with myself when I'm onstage.
But singing is just so fun. The act itself: feeling your voice come out of you, the way it obeys what your mind tells it to do, the way the music in the background fills your brain until nothing else exists. And even if it doesn't, it's still fun, because it's karaoke night and you've been screaming at the TV for hours and it doesn't matter if your voice cracks because everyone else's already has. (Side note: I can't say how relieved I am that I've finally found people in college that I don't care about being perfect in front of.) I guess people were right when they said use it or lose it!!