Hello FMA!

So I would like to start by saying that I have missed you all dearly... This community was a very important part of my life throughout high school and growing up. I figured you deserve an update on how I've been doing and where I ran off to!

So for a long time I was struggling financially in the real world... College for Music Ed didn't work out ($$$$$$$$) and working random retail and food industry jobs made getting consistent gigs a difficult task with the sporadic schedules I had to deal with. But nonetheless I tried to perform as often as I could in a sort of freelance manner. After I decided to go on leaver of absence from college in the spring of 2016 is when my journey began, and where my time on FMA all but ended...

Since then I have gone through a lot; heartbreak, car problems that crippled my financial situation, and changing jobs left and right made hours hard to get. Mental instability as well as emotional instability led to me being a not so great person. Heartbreak made it all worse, but opened my eyes to my issues. I lost touch with my parents, having not talked to them in a year and a half. My epiphany, so to speak, made me realize many of my personal issues and I looked inward to see if I could fix any of it. Thus began my attempt at becoming a better person.

Since then I have been playing gigs all over NY, and attempting to fix my financial problems. This past year I unfortunately had even more issues, so on April 10, 2019 I auditioned and made it into the Marine Corps as a trombone player. I left for boot camp on January 6th, and graduated April 3rd. I unfortunately didn't get to go home before combat training due to this whole COVID.19 craziness... So straight to Combat Training I went. I completed that training 5 days ago. I am now at the Naval School of Music, where I couldn't be happier. After not playing my bone for over 4 months, I was able to practice for the first time last night.

So long story short, I am now a US Marine. I look forward to chatting with you all again now that I've made it through my tunnel... The light was small for a very long time, but that light is what kept me going.

Thank you all for your support in the past, and I look forward to being a little more active than I have been!

Hoo-rah!

Congrats on your AWESOME accomplishments!! You should be very proud!! Looking forward to having you around more here in FMA!!

I haven't been here much either but congratulations!

It's great to see that your life has turned a corner and that you are doing well for yourself!

Keep us updated on how things are going with you!

Take care!