Travis Eckert – 9/9/07 – Sevits – English II – 7th Period

Personal Narrative 2nd Draft

On a nice cold, crisp Christmas morning, there I was, so excited about the gifts under the tree. At the tender age of five years, any gift seemed great to me. I had no idea what I would get that Christmas morning, except for the conventional stuff. Though, in many ways, this Christmas changed my life. I went through all of the “crummy” gifts such as underwear and socks in such a scurry just because of all of the excitement instilled in me. After all of all the less desirables, I saw video games, and until the age of around fourteen, was practically all I did. But that one gift, so much for a kid to have. It was worth around six hundred dollars at that time, it was a 1996 Fender Stratocaster. I had expressed a little interest in learning, especially since my dad played. There was disappointment after Christmas, and for years to come. My father tried to teach me but if I asked the same questions twice, he would start to freak out. They never once got me lessons, even if I begged for days. I have never quite understood, why buy something that expensive and not make a further investment for them to learn how to use it? My father taught himself, but he was in his twenties or thirties when he learned how to play. His mental capacity was far greater than mine. So there it sat, collecting dust. Eventually it was put up and then my dad took it from my possession into his. Years went by and nothing happened except for nitwitted video games. Though this did allow me to have an “average” childhood, I would have very much liked to be the “music nerd” then. Aruond the age of fourteen, I was introduced to a band called ‘System of a Down’ by my friend Jason. It was unlike anything I have ever heard. It was kind of like back in the 80s’ when a friend pulled out a Metallica record and instantly you become a huge “metalhead”. Time went on again and I just stumbled upon ‘heavy’ bands I liked. Most of those I had heard of before I started really listening to them a lot. Until about the age of fifteen and a half, I hadn’t been into music much. But progressing through that first year of high school made me acquaint to new things. Soon enough I could find a “cool” band on my own. This was essentially with the click of a button. Thanks God for Wikipedia! Somehow, over months of begging, I got my parent’s let me acquire a guitar teacher. I asked the principal, Pam Vaden, to post signs around Ravenwood and she gave me permission to and later that night I got a call from a guy named John. We had confusion on how to find each other, but after a few days of trial and error, I finally found him. I had my first lesson the Tuesday of the next week. He taught me more than I had known, including learning the classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. But one week, he didn’t show. He had done this before, but he usually contacted me. He didn’t return my calls. Two days later I found out he got in trouble for “touching a girl”. I never spoke to him about it because there was no need to unless he mentioned it. Lessons went on, but his mom drove him because lessons were all he was allowed to do. A couple of weeks later, he doesn’t show up for a lesson and doesn’t return my calls for about a week. I later find out that he “withdrew from Ravenwood”. Apparently he was drinking on school grounds. Was a horrible move, and I have not seen or talked to him since. I have not even heard a word about him since this happened. John probably got expelled and moved to another school within the county. Now, I have a constant guitar teacher. His name is Ross. So far, so good, he is re-teaching me what I learned from John and teaching me new stuff, such as “Hard to Handle”. Only time can tell anyone what will happen next.