Maggie Stephens

This is me and my friend eating hibachi! I just got a new phone so this extremely low-quality and unflattering picture is the only one I have of myself at the moment. Even though hibachi is quite possibly my favorite food, it is unfortunately not at all related to the interesting aspect of my life I want to talk about.

I undoubtedly owe my obsession with music to my dad; I can remember being just a kid sitting in my dad's car, watching with intrigue as his eyes lit up talking about The Rolling Stones. He cranked the radio’s volume and we sat in the car for nearly an hour taking it in together.

From then on I was hooked; I remember climbing onto my mom’s desk chair and making myself (a very illegal) account on Grooveshark. I devoured the entire discography of rock music in a matter of weeks.

My parents would always make fun of me as a kid for playing air guitar/air keyboard to the music I was listening to and eventually, I think they felt so bad for me that they offered to buy me a real keyboard. I tore the wrapping paper off of my brand new Casino keyboard Christmas morning and immediately hauled it to my room; no one actually saw me for days afterward but I’m positive they heard me.

Eventually, my parents let me take lessons. For my age (I was 11 at the time), I was actually a really talented player, but I was probably the worst student in existence. I would immediately memorize every piece I played and then throw the sheet music away; if I couldn’t remember something, I would improvise. My teachers hated me and eventually, I got really tired of being forced to pump out classical music, so I quit lessons. At that point, I “secretly” used my parents’ credit card to buy myself classic rock sheet music off of Amazon and was immediately punished, but it was 100% worth it.

From that point on, I kept expanding my music knowledge and taught myself my favorite pieces on the keyboard, pursuing them out of passion rather than obligation. To this day, I’ve never actually performed in a piano recital, but my musically-inclined friends and I put on shows for the rest of our group for fun.

Nothing brings me more joy in life than music; it surpasses all my other passions in life and I am forever grateful for my dad introducing me to it early on.