At 23 my high school life seems like it was forever ago, far away in the city of Houston Texas. Out in the suburbs of alief, where I had average grades and was unnoticed by most people. Every now and then though, a memory will come floating back to me. Sometimes I'll laugh, or cry, but none the less I get very nostalgic. I find writing these memories down works best for me, storing them somewhere that I can share them with other people.

This one comes to you from when I was a freshman. My friend Andrew and I were trying to get our band off the ground, everyday we would bring our instruments to school. He played bass, and used to bring his Hofner Violin bass( the one Paul McCartney played most often), and I would bring my Rickenbacker 330. Between our 7 class periods we would sit in the hallways and play, sometimes skipping class all together. Just to play songs, and smoke cigarettes in the bathroom. We quickly caught the attention of the older students, for being quite an interesting pair. It was not everyday you saw a black kid, and a Korean playing music, and wearing skinny jeans with leather jackets. One of the guys we met was named Ross, a senior we was into collecting Vinyls of old and newly released records. He used to pay us $5 each to learn a song, then play it for him in the bathroom. And if we wrote a song that he really dug, he would give us $10 each. I have no idea where Ross is today, or even if he is still alive; but he remains my first paying fan.

Anyway one day he told us that we should come over his place one day, and learn some news chords, scales, notes and songs. Like any starting musicians we were more than eager to do so. So on a slow fall day, we slipped our way out of school. Taking a 30 minute bus ride out to Ross's apartment, where he had a number of records to show us.

We spent our remainder of the day there, learning all that could fill our brains. Then made are way all the way back across town, and home to my garage. Where Andrew and I did more practicing of what we just learned. That is how it was in those days, all we did was play, play, and play some more. Weekends, nights, holidays, birthdays we sat and crafted our art. Now 10 years later, I think it is safe to say that it payed off more than we could ever imagine. Music has taken me places I would never have been able to go, and meet people I could of never met with out it. It has given me a since of self worth that I lacked before, and away to touch friends and family.