Memoirs of the Uncool: People Share Their Embarrassing Phases

Igniting Wisdom

When I was in college, I spent a couple of months mesmerized by matches. I would light one and watch it burn down, and if someone came by, I’d say (in my best documentary voice) something like, “Since time began, man has been fascinated by fire.”

Glad I got through that phase without actually becoming a Pyro.

Dye Another Day

When I was 16, I kept my hair dyed blue and kept myself fairly busy earning money to keep buying the hair dye so it would stay that way. One summer, one of our cats, a gray and white one, had to have a leg amputated after being bitten by a snake, and I noticed that the skin beneath the fur was the same color, in the same pattern as her fur had been.

And it was just enough to pass idiot teenage muster.

So, I shaved my head with the intention of getting my entire scalp tattooed blue, thinking that when my hair grew back in, it would be forever blue. I even found a tattoo guy willing to do the job, but only if an experimental square inch worked.

I’m still blonde, but I do have a tattoo on my scalp that’s just a blue square.

My mother was too dumbfounded to say anything. And my stepdad just walked out onto the back porch to stare into the yard for a while. It was never brought up again once it was clear the experiment didn’t work.

I never dyed my hair again after that, either.

Thug Life on a Budget

Acting like a thug … being 12 years old from a white middle-class family but acting like a career criminal, born in the streets, who had done a nickel of hard time in the clink. At the mall on a Friday night, giving you the crazy eye with my backward hat and baggy pants.

If someone did actually “try” me, we would usually just bump chests and say, “Do something then,” “Go ahead then,” or “No, you do something, homie,” walking in circles with my hands by my side because I’m more concerned about looking gangster than I am about defending myself. 9/10 times nothing would happen, but I would definitely chalk it up as a win for my crew anyway.

Side note one of my best homies head-butted a guy with a terrible head-butt technique, and it knocked them both unconscious, but because my friend woke up and got up first, he declared himself the victor. It was surprisingly hard to argue with that logic.

Also, I had my nickname embroidered on my fitted hat from lids, “Lil E,” but because of the calligraphy style font and bad spacing, it appeared to read Lile or Lily as most would pronounce it, and that sucked; I spent a whole months allowance on that stupid hat never to be worn again, but also never forgotten by my friends.

Sincerely yours, Lily

Legbeard Diaries

I used to have crushes on random boys and would literally follow them around like a sick puppy without saying a word. And I’d openly stare at them and write poetry about them in my notebook and friend them on MySpace without having ever spoken to them. I was a straight-up stalker with no concept of boundaries. And I also complained about how no guys ever wanted to date nice girls like me.

I was a total female neckbeard.

Apparently, the term is “legbeard.” I feel a certain sense of relief now that I know that is a thing that exists. Also, let me just add that my main fashion staples at this point in my life were an assortment of oversized novelty t-shirts that doubled as pj’s (also stolen from my mom) and men’s cargo shorts/pants.

mepulixer

Black Lipstick and Rebel Laughs

I used to dress like a mall goth. Me and my group of friends all dressed like mall goths…we basically had the same Hot Topic staple wardrobe. My mom was supportive (ish) about it but teased me relentlessly for being so terribly cliche. I have a painful vivid memory of being 16 and crossing my arms in defiance when my mom asked us why we were dressed the way we were, and huffing, “BECAUSE mom we don’t wanna be COOKIE CUTTER like everyone else, ok?! It’s about being an INDIVIDUAL! ” My mother, rest her soul, actually SNORTED and said, “Look at the 4 of you in a mirror and tell me, what’s not cookie cutter about that? You cookie cutter, just a different shape” and yall I still think about that to this day  I didn’t appreciate that wisdom then, but I do now. I’m still a mall goth at heart, so maybe it WASN’T a phase…

From Broadway to Binary

Oh god, acting. After years of theater, starting in elementary through college, I thought that was it. Loved being on stage. My (Korean) mom would try and bribe me with fast food and other contraband instead of heading out to classes and auditions.

Now I work in IT but still take classes here and there. So, compromise.

From Hero to Zero

When I first joined the army in 2006, I went through this ridiculous phase where I would use overly motivated army phrases in casual conversations with my friends and family who were never in the military. I talked down to them and acted as if I was the biggest hero just for joining the military and being a medic. This was before I even went anywhere. All I had done at that point was graduate basic and medical training. By the time I came home from Iraq, that attitude was completely gone, and I felt nothing but shame and apathy.

Chamber of Jedi Secrets

Due to being a massive Harry Potter fan, my stepsister just assumed I liked Star Wars. I was stupid and embarrassed because saying I wasn’t a fan would make me “less of a nerd,” so I put up with years of Star Wars gifts and collectibles, including figurines, onesies, pajamas, movie tickets, books, and so on. I still haven’t watched all of them. It only stopped when I moved out of home.

Splatter Nostalgia

I never got to experience anything like that as a kid. I suppose the closest thing was back when I got into paintball. I was obsessed. Turns out it was just a 3-year phase since the entire paintball community sort of died off all around the same time.

reddituser

Pink and Proud

I went to a car show once as a teen, and the only newer car there was some chick’s PT cruiser. It was hot glittery pink, and at the time, I was obsessed. I insisted that one day I would have a hot pink car, with pink seats, pink dash, pink carpets, etc. I was pretty heavily goth at the time, so my parents just rolled their eyes.

Ear-Resistibly Feline

My cat-ear phase. I wore cat ears every single day. Everywhere. I had like 20 pairs of them. Now everyone thinks I’m a furry.

Chains of Time

When I was a teenager (early 00s), I was waiting for my mother to pick me up and was wearing one of those sh*tty sports wristwatches. It was itching me, so I took it off for a second, but then she arrived, and because I was struggling to get it back on my wrist, I looped it around the equally sh*tty chain I had around my neck in a rush to get out the door.

My mom asked me about it in the car, and I told her this was my new style and I planned to wear it like that every day. She rolled her eyes.

I wore that watch on a chain around my neck every single day for 3 years or so. There are even professional family photos where I’m wearing it because I refused to take it off.

One day, the chain broke, and I lost the watch. I was in high school at that point anyway, and it was a major lady repellent, so… phase over.

daevgriin

Paused Progress

I used to be really into video games. I lived and breathed WoW, was planning a Super Mario-themed sleeve tattoo for when I was 18, was a complete introvert at school with no real-life friends, and spent my days hanging out on Vent. From when I was a kid until college at 19.

Now I’m 31, I’m trying to get back into gaming, WoW, Discord, etc, and it’s changed so much. I’ve changed so much. I just can’t game and enjoy it the way I used to. And I can’t help but think if I had been born just 5-10 years LATER, I would have fit in so much easier at school. I regret not sticking with my hobbies because of relationships and school/career. Makes me kinda feel like I lost a part of me more than “I just grew out of it”.

Ruled by Fashion

When I was a teenager, I wore metal rulers. Like a fashion accessory. The bigger, the better. This was made all the more ridiculous by the fact that 1) I’m quite short, and 2) I liked to wear the longest rulers I could find. 18″ was the standard for me, and it nearly hit the ground, and 3) I thought the coolest way to fasten them to my pants was with padlocks. I invariably lost the keys to or combinations if they were combinations. Most of my teen years were spent with Jnco jeans that all had the belt loops cut off as a result.

So. Cool.

Emo on a Budget

I did the whole “emo” phase in middle and high school.

The thing was, I wasn’t able to acquire the resources that my other emo friends had. I wasn’t able to dye my hair, and my hair type didn’t work with those straightened/fringe styles. I barely had access to cosmetics, so I couldn’t often paint my nails or wear eyeliner. When I did, I looked like an idiot.

basically, I like to refer to that time of my life as “Kroger-brand emo”. I looked emo, but not enough to be legit.

reddituser

Embracing the Thrift Shop Revolution

I used to HATE going to thrift shops with my mother when I was a teenager. I would wear a blonde wig and sunglasses and make her call me “Maria” (not my real name).

Looking back, my mother was just trying to support 3 kids on my dad’s salary, and thrift shops allowed her to buy me name-brand (albeit used) clothing that otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford. What a d*ck I was.

…and for the record, I LOVE thrift shops now!!

The Yeehaw Jersey:

My “cowboy” phase. When I was 11, I wanted to become a cowboy. So I picked out the closest things in my wardrobe to cowboy clothing, which were a blue pair of shorts, a Ronaldo jersey, a black West 49 zip hoodie, DC Shoes, and of course, a cowboy hat. I grew out my hair (I’m a guy) and hid behind it to seem “mysterious.” Soon after, I moved schools and convinced everyone I had moved there from Kentucky (really, I just moved an hour north.) Naturally, I was not the most popular one in that school. People liked me more as soon as that phase ended.

Best of all, there are pictures. I’m trying to find them.

reddituser

Flirting with Deaf Destiny

I was really into Deaf studies and American Sign Language. I started using ASL EVERYWHERE and talking to everyone, even people who didn’t know it. I sometimes wished I was deaf, too, and almost dated a guy just because he knew ASL because his family members were deaf. It was really embarrassing, and I’m glad I’ve moved past those days. Now I’m studying communication disorders, so I get to use it sparingly, but I also get to help people with a lot of other things too!

Drowning in Drama

I had a crazy GF phase. The whole super jealous, do over dramatic cries, lies, and tantrums. I lost so many friends and my credibility, both personally and professionally, because a frenemy used my outburst as evidence to discredit me. Since learned my lesson and kept a more low-key-ish life. I miss my old friends, though 🙁

I was young, out of college early 20s, getting my first taste of independence, and dating a guy outside of school. I’ve always been dramatic, spoilt, and childish, but this was because I was sheltered growing up.

To sum up: I did it because I thought playing the princess in distress would win them back. I let my emotions take over me.

Dated a guy whom I took for granted, not to mention a girl who really liked him realized that she could make a move and win, and she did. I broke it off first but wanted him back. At this time girl who liked him was able to snag him. I did the crying, begging, screaming. I just let my emotions take over. Even feigned an injury to gain pity. All it did was I lost my credibility as a sane person. Perfect timing, too, for a work frenemy because my attitude at that time was enough to get me almost fired. I lost so much support, and no matter how good I did my job, my attitude was a black stain on my record. To this day, I’m a laughing stock because of that incident, and the guy hates my guts to the core.

I did this again a 2nd time to a guy who dumped me badly years later. I had a pregnancy scare (though I really did think I was pregnant). I gained weight on purpose, and karma hit me so bad I can never lose the weight to this day 🙁
Anyway, I did the scare just to scare him, not to win him back or anything. I was ridiculed, lost my job, and had hard times due to unrelated issues.

TBH, everything that happened humbled me. I’m still melodramatic, but I’m more cautious of my actions. I became so alienated it hurts.

There are days when I get angry, I can feel that same rage and irrational behavior boiling up, and my mind thinks, “Hey, do this so you can get attention,” and I take a step back because, it’s not worth it. I’ll lose more than I’ll gain.

The good thing from all of this is that I can see myself now in other people making the same mistakes I did, and I tell them, Don’t be like me. It’s not worth it.

Verse and Adversity

I went through a poet phase.

It started because I had a crush on a girl in middle school, so I wrote poems about her in my precious notebook.
She didn’t care for me, though (who could blame me here), so I got stuck in a hopeless romantic phase.
But that wasn’t enough for my 14-year-old self. I knew I was great, and the world deserved to know. So I embraced my dire fate and started posting my poems on lockers, and in the hallways.

Believe it or not, people actually thought I was some kind of master wordsmith, and I soon became the school bard.
When a guy had a crush, they’d ask me to write a poem for them. Being a generous artist, I accepted most of the time and ended up with a couple of notebooks of horrible, horrendous, cringe, soul-wrenching “romantic” poems.

Hood Up, Pen Ready

Up until eleventh grade, I went everywhere wearing the most oversized hoodie my parents would allow, hood up, so I was half blind, thinking I looked like the guys from Assassin’s Creed. I stuffed rulers up my sleeves, tucked pens into my wristwatch, and carried around the cheapest dollar-store pocket knife imaginable.

I used to sprint around my school and see how many laps I could do because I wanted to be able to run from guards for miles without stopping. I kept my hood up while I did this.

And I won’t even speak of what I thought qualified as free-running.

Kecha_Wacha

From Top Shelf to Rock Bottom

I became an alcoholic for about two years after I got a very well-paying job. It’s a mixed blessing that I don’t remember a lot of it, but I still endure references from my closest friends about the time they had to impromptu waterboard me.

It culminated in a trip to a mental hospital for a night. Being around people who are genuinely, uncontrollably insane will sober you up pretty fast.

It makes me fold up like cheap paper in cringe when I think about what an uncharacteristically nonsensical d*ck I became.

reddituser

Glow Up, Glue On

Glitter glue phase.

In my first year of public school, I made my own shoes and t-shirts every other week and wore them until they fell apart or fell off. This mostly involved gilden t-shirts, glitter glue, glow-in-the-dark paint, fake flowers, googly eyes, and inane inside jokes that I made into apparel. Either that, or I dressed like a small boy with rainbow shoelaces. The first time I did this, I was still pretty religious school school-trained, and I asked my English teacher for permission to wear this glue-sodden outfit. She slowly said I think that’s okay, looking up and down at the home-stitched skirt made out of a thrift store t-shirt, fake flower-covered shoes, and a small, mystical velvet top with many rhinestones.

When I was 14, I qualified for the state swim meet. Swimmers don’t shave their legs for months before a big meet, and then they do for sectionals. At a t-shirt-making party (so many t-shirts, guys), I impulsively covered my very hairy legs in silver glitter glue and then could not remove it at all. I had chunks of hair and glitter on my legs in all of my qualifying races, and the senior I was in love with brought it up all the time as the funniest thing he had ever seen someone do before an event. Cheeks still burn.

Memoirs of a Weather Geek

I went through a weird phase as a child where I almost exclusively watched The Weather Channel for a couple of years. This was back in the early 2000s, when there was no entertainment programming, just repeating news segments and “Local on the 8s,” the latter of which I got really excited about. I was also obsessed with watching this stupid slideshow on the local access channel and memorizing the lunch menus for every school in the district.

My mom would get angry at me for doing this. She even took me to see a child psychiatrist, who decided there was nothing wrong with me– I was just strange. But really, I was absolutely obsessed with PowerPoint. I made all sorts of presentations in my free time, and I was convinced I would become a professional PowerPoint maker, which no one at the time told me wasn’t a thing.

It turned out to be a phase because being forced to use PowerPoint today makes me groan… I’d rather spend hours editing a video or writing an essay, especially if that PowerPoint presentation requires an accompanying speech.

I find this phase to be regrettable because I missed a lot of great children’s shows of the time, like Lizzie McGuire and As Told By Ginger. I just wanted to watch the most mundane, unmemorable things on TV.

reddituser

Socks Appeal

Basically, since I started elementary, I would roll down any tube socks I wore down to my ankle because I didn’t like the feeling on my legs. I ended up having these “spacey” cloth, rolls around my ankles, always…

I also happened to be one of the unpopular kids because I was too touchy-feely and learned how bit to be overbearing. So when people teased me a little about rolling my socks, I dug in harder. I started wearing soccer (football) socks that went up past my knees so that I would have bigger rolls. I remember being dedicated to that way over wearing socks, and purposely asking for long socks from my parents. I thought I was a trendsetter.

This all changed, in 7th grade, when I found out the girl I had a huge crush on kinda of liked me back… but thought the socks thing was weird… Within a week, I had only ankle-high socks, and that’s all I’ve worn from then on.

Tomboy’s Journey to Self-Discovery

My tomboy “not like other girls” phase occurred between ages 4-9ish. Like, years later, it makes sense, but… still shudders. I say 9, but it was only at age 13 when I completely dropped it, mostly because I got prescribed testosterone and started feeling a bit more comfortable in myself taking it.

Still, look back on those days with confusion. I was so determined to be the most boyish person I could possibly be despite knowing well I loved dresses, makeup, nail polish, and all that sh*t I always told everyone I resented. Even forced myself to say my favorite color was blue (it’s actually pink).

Luckily, puberty slapped some sense into me and made me actually think about why I was acting that way. And now my egg days are long behind me! Much happier tbh

Card Games and Cash Gains

This is the opposite but still a similar situation. I got into Magic: the Gathering around 1994 when I was 9 years old. I remember asking for some high-end cards that first Christmas, particularly Black Lotus and the myriad of Mox and dual land cards. Duals were in the ballpark of $10, $20-30 for Moxen, and $50ish for Lotus. My mom thought that I was insane asking for a $50 trading card, but she did get me an assortment of dual lands and booster packs.

Fast forward almost 30 years, and I don’t really play anymore aside from some super-casual games at the kitchen table when friends visited pre-Covid times. I still have all of those dual lands in decent shape. Some are now worth hundreds of dollars!

However, Black Lotuses are valued in excess of $10,000. Some editions are going for much, much more. I like to remind my mom of this every so often.

It definitely was NOT a phase.

skyst

The Pout Experiment

In primary school, I noticed other people would hold their mouths in a different way to me, so I decided to try them. I went around for a day with my tongue slightly sticking out, then a day with my mouth slightly open, then with my mouth in an “o” shape. Eventually, someone asked me what I was doing, and I stopped.

Noodles and Notions

During high school, I went through a phase of eating only dried ramen noodles, but I would only season it with Chef Paul Prudhomme’s MAGIC Seafood seasoning. One morning an acquaintance asked why it was the only thing I ate, and I replied, “It’s a political statement.” She (reasonably) was only confused. I remember sighing and rolling my eyes and saying, “If you don’t already know, I am not going to bother explaining it.” From then on, I convinced everyone it was for a political movement, and some people pretended to know what I was talking about like they were also in the elite political activist club. After a few more weeks of living off of this “food,” I think I actually started believing it was a political statement. And now I think…eh, what?! Teenager-me, explain yourself!

A Hat to Remember

Between the ages of about 13 and 15, I wore a wooly hat that I never took off and never washed. I wore it during the summer and whilst I slept. I distinctly remember taking it off one day and smelling the inside of it to find that it smelled of corpses and old fish. It was a bit of an awakening, and I stopped wearing it after that. It’s in all photographs of me, and it makes me cringe whenever I look at them. On the bright side, realizing how bad I smelled with it on has made me very fastidious with my own personal hygiene now.

Oh, and going through a ‘goth phase’. Well, I say ‘goth phase’, what I mean is I wore big gothic boots because I really, really wanted to be over 6ft tall (I am now).

Oh yeah, and there was that time I decided I was going to worship Thor.

Deckelhaut

From Go-Kart Dreams to Engineering Schemes

Pants-pocalypse

Combat trousers with a massive spare pocket that was basically made of smaller pockets, enough pockets to carry around a small medical practice’s worth of equipment. I mean, like, the top was detachable, and there were about 40 segments inside the fold-out, hip-attached pocket. Of course, they were heavy and coarse but not quite denim material colored somewhere between stone and khaki and weighed a ton. The one time I was caught in a rainstorm wearing them, I swear they nearly doubled my weight. Add in the obligatory Nokia 5110, and I’d be able to set off truck stop weigh scales.

There are doctors in surgery theatres surrounded by trays of medical equipment who would look at them and say, “I don’t have enough sh*t for all those pockets”. Plus I could have made another pair of trousers with the spare material.

reddituser

Fading Nihongo

I have a real whopper… I loved anime as a teenager. This was in the 90s, so it wasn’t that mainstream yet. Because I had no interest in anything else, I took a year of Japanese. Then because I STILL had no other ambition or interest, I signed up in the military to go to Japan. For 8 years.

Got out, went to college, and because I STILL didn’t know what I wanted to do, I studied Japanese. By this time, the interest in anime had worn off, but learning culture and history was cool. So… I went to college to learn Japanese. As a major.

6 years, a ton of core classes, and not a single interest in any other thing. I was “done” with the Japanese language at that point, but because near the end, my class literally couldn’t be run without me, I stayed. I stayed because I felt like it would be a waste if I changed it. Everything I had done up to that point was a lie.

Here I am with a degree in Japanese Language/History and Culture, and I’m not at all interested in it anymore.

I’m looking for a real job, and have been since I got out of college, but for now, I work for a temp company for a Japanese air conditioning company.

-Firestar-

Degrees of Redemption

My parents would go off the hook when I came home with failing grades in high school. I told them I had no intention but to work whatever dead-end jobs I felt like to make ends meet and wasn’t going to college anyway. School wasn’t for me, and whether I passed or failed, it wasn’t going to change my life. That’s just who I was, and it wasn’t going to change.

I had been taking random general classes at the local community college for a couple of years and working whatever I felt like to make ends meet. After she graduated high school, my girlfriend at the time told me either I had to get myself together and do something with my life, or she was moving on (I started senior year at 16, if that helps explain the time difference in graduations). The next day I found a local private college that taught computer science, was accepted because I was actually getting really good grades at the community college (who knew slackers could get good grades when learning what they want to learn), graduated with honors with an associates and a bachelors degree from there and later graduated with honors with an MBA at a university. My not doing work in high school was obviously not that I wasn’t capable of more and was, indeed, just a phase. And the difference was that I ended up paying for every penny of my higher education on my own (no scholarships, employer benefits, or help from parents). Oh, I also married that awesome girl that kicked my butt into gear, and we have three awesome kids now, all of whom are wicked smart.

reddituser

Float Before You Swim

I don’t know if this was a phase. But I used to want to become a Marine. One of my friends in 4th grade said he wanted to become one, and I was like, “Me too”. Then I realized all the stuff I would be missing out on as a free man when I eventually grew up. Besides, I don’t know how to swim lol. But if life takes me nowhere, it wouldn’t hurt to try.

Swinging for the Stars

To become a professional golfer. By the time I was 17, I could only reach handicap 8, and by then, I knew I wasn’t gonna make it.

Focus on my studies instead, and now I’m a Chemical Engineer making a decent living. I recall those golfing days dearly, though.

Hy8ogen

Attorney to Aerialist

Lawyer. My parents kept reminding me that circus performing is in our family’s blood, but I insisted I was different. I went to law school, got a degree, and even practiced for a few years. The pay was good, but it destroyed your soul. It lasted about a year before I ran back home to rejoin the circus. I now make a respectable living as a professional freak.

Gravity-Defying Geek Squad

Parkour. I used to do a lot of Parkour as a teen and had a “crew” where we would basically run around town jumping over bars doing pretty lame simple tricks.

Rarely would we climb on top of a roof and feel superior, but mostly it was just a bunch of freckled nerds doing the early 2000s equivalent of a Naruto run.

There are still some videos we made on YouTube set to technomusic that I can’t for the life of me figure out how to remove.

MiaMulder

Inventing the Dream

Due to films like Gremlins and Back to the Future, I set my young eyes on the lofty and glamorous career goals of being an inventor. I assumed I’d go to an office (or laboratory) of some sort, then spend roughly 8 hours a day “inventing”, for which I would be paid some sum of money. I remember once, when I was a bit older, getting a list of average salaries for different job types and being disappointed that inventors were not listed.

reddituser

Epic Tales and Epic Turns

When I was a kid, I loved Greek mythology. I would get D’Aulaire’s book of mythology from the library at least once a month. Went to high school, and took Latin for five years. Then when I went to college, I wanted to study English and psychology…

Ended up graduating with an Ancient Greek and Classical Civilization double major. So sometimes you’re right when you’re a kid ;]

veg_tubble

Ticket to Trample

I thought I was going to love concerts until the day I died. I spent all of my money on concert tickets, and I actually enjoyed being trapped in a sweaty mass of people, getting shuffled around and trampled. Hair plastered to the back of my neck with sweat, losing my shoes and phone, whatever, man, it was all about the music.

I was at a concert last night where I was in the center of about six rows of people from the barrier. It was awful. Tall people blocked my view of the stage. I fell over multiple times, failed crowdsurfers fell on me, and I had to hide behind a (thankfully very nice and understanding) young man for the entire show.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m too old for that kinda sh*t. I’ll still go to concerts, but I’ll be standing in the back from now on.

On the upside, no tattoo regret. Everyone who told me I’d regret it later can suck it.

red_raconteur

Ollies and Obligations

Back in the early to mid-80s, my entire young pre-teen life revolved around skateboarding. I was obsessed with all things skateboarding. My walls were plastered with hundreds of pages from skate magazines. I used to hang my old, broken skateboards and worn wheels on strings from the ceiling. I dressed the part all the time (including duct tape on my shoes). I literally slept with my skateboard in my bed. I carried it at school, and everywhere I went. I would spend every spare second skateboarding whenever and wherever.

I thought I would be a skater for life. Now, if I were to get on a skateboard, I’d either kill myself or the kids in the neighborhood would be tweeting about the fat, old guy attempting a kick-flip (which was a super-rad trick back in the day.).

KillerBeeTX

Grooves of Destiny

When I was 4 years old, I saw a TV show about how vinyl records were made. I was fascinated, and throughout childhood pretended I was cutting records when I played them. I’m now 59 and a multi-Grammy-winning mastering engineer. I knew what I wanted to do at age 4 and had the incredible good fortune to make it a reality! Very grateful!

reddituser

Blues and Beyond

When I was learning to play guitar as a kid, Mom insisted I learn more about music other than the blues.

“I just want to play blues, Mom.” I was a bit stubborn.

Mom told me…”There’s more than just blues out there, and if you’re serious about working on music… you’ll keep your eyes and your ears open to everything going on around you.”

For 26 years, I have worked part-time as a musician. There have even been points in my life where the ONLY work I had was music work. In all these years, I have never held a gig where I primarily played blues and blues only.

Mom was right.

Skating on Thin Ice

Wanted to pursue ice skating seriously back in seventh grade after watching the show ‘Yuri on Ice’. I live in a country where it doesn’t even snow, and the average temperature is around forty degrees all year round, so I probably had to go abroad if I wanted to even learn ice skating. My parents obviously denied my request, and I didn’t talk to them for a week after that.

From Tarzan to Triage

I went through a phase where I was a great explorer and a survival expert. Went wondering sometimes with a plan to build a treehouse and live there. during the night, I ate some poisonous berries and ended up bedridden in a hospital for a week.

Duffing It Out

When I was in elementary school, maybe 3rd or 4th grade, my older sister was really into Hillary Duff. So, of course, she played it constantly in every car ride we took.

Apparently, the music grew on me, and I knew every word of some of the songs (or at least I thought I did…)

So my friends and I would play this role-playing game where we would create characters for ourselves with “special powers” and fight imaginary monsters around the playground. And, of course, I picked Hillary Duff as my character. With the power to “sing enemies to sleep.” I am a male.

I distinctly remember when it was my turn to “attack” a monster, so I somehow thought it would be a good idea to sing an entire Hillary Duff song. I also remember my friends trying to stop me several times, but I insisted that I had to sing the whole thing so that it “actually fell asleep.”

Yeah, my friends stopped playing that game after that.