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Belmont secondary Student Voices: Caitlyn Bissett

Playing the guitar is a skill worth a million words, but I have found a love-hate relationship with my passion.
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Playing the guitar is a skill worth a million words, but I have found a love-hate relationship with my passion.

I love playing the guitar; I love the challenge. I’m a very stubborn girl who is determined in anything she does, but I hate being told what to do and how to do it – the force factor taking the love factor out of the task.

I have been putting off guitar for months due to school, making time for friends, not to mention pure laziness. So when my class started a project where we had to do or learn a certain thing within a week, I decided to take the opportunity to get some of my skill back, but I didn’t quite think it through.

The first three days were nothing but reading tabs and trying to retrain my fingers to make up certain chords. Repeating these steps, day after day, started to feel like a chore. For the rest of the week, I was basically running through the song again and again, until my hands begged me to stop, but my only focus was, “you have to do this for school, you have to get a good grade.” This very quickly became an annoyance.

I like learning for my own benefit and enjoyment, without a deadline. So when I chose guitar for this project, it was only because I already knew what I was doing and thought I wouldn’t get bored. That was until I realized I had no choice but to learn a new song. I didn’t get a say, because I only cared about the potential grade, rather than the music itself.

Beethoven once said, “to play the wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

I lost my passion to practice, only because I was being forced to practice. Some people work better when a deadline is set, it motivates and pushes them to do their absolute best. But that isn’t me, I’m a self-motivated person and rely on no one but myself to succeed.

I still love music; it’s a way I can escape whatever life is throwing at me. Bob Marley, described as a “soul rebel,” once said that “one good thing about music is when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

You can’t make something beautiful with force; let your passion and determination carry you to success.

Caitlyn Bissett is a student in Lauren Frodsham’s AVID 11 class at Belmont secondary.