1st Draft 1st Story, Moving to Cali

It all started as a sunny morning, I was getting ready for school, the days seemed brighter,
maybe for the fact we were about to take our vacations, once I got to school, I had a pretty
nice day. From the beginning, when I arrived, I started hearing some Costa's music played in
the school speakers by the teachers. The Last day of classes, we were allowed to listen to
music, play different sports, in less speech is a relaxing day. All this songs were in my mind,
all the time until I arrived home, then my mom told me that we were moving to Cali, this
because of my father's job, I couldn't believe it, new life, new friends, new place, it was pretty
hard for me to assimilate. I was just a 13 years old boy in 2016.

So the moving day came, I wasn't ready, all I could listen to in my mind was the clear sound
of the Costa's music in my head, the road trip began, every meter that we run in the car was
a meter more distant to Barranquilla, we did some pauses, and saw some landscapes, so it
didn’t feel such like a moving, but more like a trip. Finally we got to Cali, this was the reality
hitting me in the face., then the Costa's music not just played in my head but in the car radio
was swapped for salsa, Cali ajì by grupo niche started playing, this song talks about how’s
Cali and also representative things about it, more or less an introduction of the city. This was
hard for me, being “En Barranquilla me quedo” a song by el Joe Arroyo who talks about how
nice is Barranquilla and how much the author loves it, this is a an important song because I
knew wouldn't stay in Barranquilla, I thought of this when I was in the 5ta and I realized that I
was in “mi Cali bella”(like the song lyrics), this wasn't easy at all.

I wasn't really used to listening to Costa music, such as vallenato, or even champeta, but as
people say, you don't really know what you have, until you lose it, and in my spare time I
started to listen to vallenato, I started liking the accordion and my music's liking started to
change as in between this ages when we start to choose our un music taste, nonetheless, I
was also very impacted with the salsa, so that's how my music taste is so big, I used to just
listen to music in English but all of the sudden I started liking also Colombian's.

I suddenly realized it was much better to see the bright sun beam in the cold weather, its
worth noting that for me was cold, starting by the fact that its 10 degrees less in Barranquilla,
nonetheless the fact of appreciating every little detail, from the cold mornings to the folklore
in the night made me start to love this place.

At the beginning this wasn’t easy, the fact of having to meet new friend, new places, get
used to new food, to a new environment and even new temperature, I wouldn’t stop talking
with my old friends, and changes don’t even have to be so radical. In conclusion, I don't think
changes are bad, you just have to get used to them and know how to take the good part out
of the dark part, and now, as I could start to feel better and as I started to love this place,
now I can't figure out how'd my life be if I wouldn't move here, also I thought that my music
taste is a Colombian cultural mixture in my life, and you don't just have to pick one liking,
diversity it's great, so is music.
 2nd Draft 2nd story
Playing for first time in public
Since I was young, I always wanted to play instruments, I always liked music, and as in my
school learning one instrument was mandatory, I learned how to play the flute. I’ve been
always characterized for wanting to improve, so I wanted to learn how to play another
instrument, and I was excited for learning piano for a while, I liked how it could fit in almost
every genre, from classic music to pop.

This all started, when in the school we had to pick a cultural class, such as dancing, music,
drawing, and acting, this was in 2018, I was 16 years old, and in 10th grade, I was eager for
learning how to play an instrument, the one I wanted to play was the piano, and it comes to
be that I had one in my house, so I got to the job of learning a song for the music class
audition, for this I learned “I hate you, I love you”, this isn’t very important in the story. I
passed my audition, proud of myself and went to the first class, but then our teacher told us
right in this class the we had to play a song for the school talents show, it was sort of an in-
play that was about a giant who scared everyone but he just wanted love, obviously having
some background stories, but the main one was about him and his lack of confidence for
being just like how he is, and we had to find a song that could fit the theatre play, so we got
to the job and found out that “idontwannabeyouanymore” by Billie Eilish could fit very well in
the story, as both talk about how the insecurity and lack of self-confidence could leave you to
feel unhappy. This song drives you to feel a little low, because of the slow rhythm and
sometimes higher and I think it goes very well with the lyrics.

I was then chosen for playing the piano in this song, I started to search how to do it, the way
I tried for it was searching YouTube videos and trying to replicate what they did, I also tried
internet pages free lessons, but I couldn’t figure out how it should be played well, the
technique and all that kind of stuff, I was concerned. I asked for help, I had the initiative for
playing it but all of the sudden my teacher started to ignore me and not helping me with my
piano learning process, while I was practicing and asking for help he was just paying
attention to the guys that knew what they were doing and they even were playing some
songs different songs, also he started to unplug the piano from the speaker so it didn’t
sound, I was downcast. This was for me a very frustrating process, and not as deep as the
song but I was less self-confident, the point is that I didn’t give up, I still put my effort into it to
get it through, I continued to watch again the videos, the lessons, and some hand practices
for placing my fingers.

Even though my teacher wouldn’t help me to learn my song I was still practicing by my own,
with some difficulties, all of the sudden we got to the class again and, surprise, the teacher
wasn’t there, he was replaced by another one, he presented himself, and then he told, that if
anyone needed help he would be available for giving it, I told him my inconvenient and what
I passed through and he taught me how to play my chords, every day, I practiced two hours,
so I could at least get the song to sound well.

It was finally the day, I was pretty nervous, my hands were shaking, I was even a little bit
dizzy, but we did the theatre technique of saying the bad word so we lose our fears, I felt
relaxed, or that is what I wanted me to think, just until we head to the scenario and saw all
the people in the seats, my heart started to beat faster, but when I started to play, everything
was gone it was just the song and me, as one, and I felt it go well, my friends congratulated
me and in that point, was the moment I felt all the effort was worth a chance, and whenever
I try to learn something I could do it.

In conclusion, when the things look tough there is still no reason for giving up, you can do
anything you put effort on, when you establish a purpose for yourself it comes up to be a
responsibility with your own being, now, every time that I listen to this song, more than
hearing Billie Eillish’s charming voice, I hear a success story, and that reminds me I can
achieve everything I propose.