“We have to practice man,” commanded a voice belonging to my lifelong friend Jason. “I mean, we REALLY need to practice.”

“Oh yea? Why exactly is that?” I questioned.

“Because, we’ve got a gig in less than two weeks.”

At that very moment, I could feel worry, anxiety, confusion, and joy flow through my body, my mind, my soul. Thousands of questions came to mind. Why? Who? Where? Will there be any compensation in the form of money? The only thing I could mutter was, “what?”

He explained that his church was having a party to celebrate fifty years as a congregation. He told me that they needed a band to play a song or two and he had volunteered us. From that day we practiced at least three hours a day. We knew that if we could play at a solid, great sounding level, it would either make or break our future musician’s hopes.

It was probably a wonderful mass, but I couldn’t concentrate long enough to listen. I just kept running every note through my head. The shaking was continuously getting worse and there was no way to control it. I tried not to think about it as a performance and just as Jason and me screwing around with our music back home. “Here is ‘Savior Self’ with Reconciliation,” boomed the pastor on the P. A. system.

Several people had approached us after the performance praising us for what we had accomplished. The biggest shock came when a man from Ibanez, a well-known musical instrument company, offered to sponsor us. Jason and I talked it over and decided that we would call him in a year and if he was still interested then we would sign. Playing that gig was the best thing we could have done and I sit here wondering, what would have been so bad that I might not have performed? I’m on cloud nine because we did.

Those words awoke me from my endless daze. I sort of felt as if I was bungee jumping up and being yanked down instead of jumping down and flying up. Jason and I made our way to the stage which now made us look like t

Some topics in this essay:
Savior Self, Self’ Reconciliation”, gig weeks”, quick tune,