Joy

I love to sing.

Simple as that. What gives me joy? Music. Singing, playing piano--even just scales--or randomly selecting a song on my iTunes playlist (Weezer's "Buddy Holly") and learning it on clarinet. All of it. There is a complete and total joy that comes to me from organizing sound into something coherent, which is, essentially, what music is at it's most basic level.

I think the joy shines through in this picture. My friend Miz Minka took it this afternoon at the Chorale concert. She took this in the middle of my solo, which explains why mine is the only mouth open. Now, normally, smiling like this while singing is a no-no, but I can't help it, and somehow I manage to maintain my vowels. There's just so much joy in putting my voice out there, that I have to smile.

(And the fact that I'm able to smile with that hideous scarf tied around my neck shows just how much I was enjoying the music.)