After a lot of hard work and two years of planning (even if I didn’t always know what I was planning FOR), I’m finally studying for my Bachelors degree at ETSU. In Bluegrass.

If you’ve been reading you know that I’ve been excitedly watching the program develop, and this is my first semester–also the first semester that the Bachelor of Arts became a reality.

Though my brother Jason and I talk about how I’m *living the life*, I haven’t been fully appreciative how unbelievably lucky I am to be here.

But I had an epiphany yesterday in my Bluegrass History I class, and suddenly I felt as if the candle had been lit. We. Talk. About. Music. All. Day. And play it. And dig inside the lyrics and context and back story and the dream…

I need more than 10 fingers to count the number of people that have inspired me, and there isn’t enough room on the page to detail how I got to this point. My parents, my high school and college teachers, my friends that went off the grid–at least for a moment–to follow their passion. Starting my own business, paying off my credit cards, saving money, applying for a scholarship. Practicing. Only the tip of the ice berg. The corner of the picture. Two lines from a verse…

But now, after yesterday, I dream. Without calling it *hope*… Like it is totally possible to do this for the rest of my life… I am one of those crazy, colorful candles with the loops and the paisley that my folks used to have. And I. Am. Lit.

Be free,
Jeff