Dear Self

Dear 18-Year Old Self,

It's you, ten years later. Things are going pretty well, and you have a lot to look forward to. Don't want to give away too many spoilers, but you have a lovely young family and your career is going pretty darn well. I know it's 8:00 on a Sunday evening and you don't want to leave your apartment. You need to do it anyway.

You need to go and practice for 2 or 3 hours. I know you pretty well, and I know that you get into little intermittent streaks where you practice intensively and intelligently for about 2 or 3 weeks at a time. Then you get busy or lazy, and you just do an hour a day until someone lights a fire under you. You fool, this is the only time in your life you're going to be able to practice this much! Not only that, but this is the only time in your life that you're going to get such a rapid rate of return on your practicing.

I would LOVE to be able to practice for 3 hours a day. Career success actually works against you here. You see, in ten years you're going to need to be able to get through a two and a half hour concert every Friday and Saturday night, not to mention all the rehearsals you'll have during the day. You won't be able to afford to practice yourself out to the very dregs...you'll need to perform later.

Not only that, but on a non-concert day your family is going to want to see you, and you're going to want to see them. And even though it seems like you should have a plenty of time to go to church, have a meal together, run around the yard, and then go practice, it doesn't work like that. Your wife has stuff she needs to do to, there are phone calls to be answered, emails to be answered, paperwork to be done (sorry, by the way, taxes aren't any easier or intelligible when you're 28 than when you're 18) and just when you think that you can break away for an hour to the practice room, your 2 year old will fall down the steps and demand to be held by only you while he sobs his little heart out for 20 minutes.

And you won't want to practice. You'll want to be with your family. You'll have to go practice anyway, because that's what puts bread on the table, but it sort of isn't as much fun when you do it because your livelihood depends on it. You're a student right now, and it's kind of surprising and fun that you're turning out to be kind of good at this trumpet thing. Later on you'll HAVE to be good, or else...

Don't worry, though. There is a lot to look forward to. Your endurance and high range will get loads better, and you're going to have a lot better equipment in ten years time. The best part will be working with your colleagues, though. I mean, in a lot of ways they aren't any more mature than the college goofballs you work with now, but they are amazing musicians, and it will be a privilege every time you take the stage with them. You become a weird, really dysfunctional family.

But put in the time now to get better at the things you need. Honestly, stop practicing the stuff you're already good at. Playing Carnival of Venice three more times tonight won't make you any better at it. Practice lip trills, practice slotting your low Ds and C#s with a tuner, or practice French etudes or downward slurs. If you don't kick your butt now, someone else will later.

I know you don't want to get dressed and trudge across campus and spend all evening in a practice room by yourself. If it's any consolation, I do feel a little sorry for you. There's a lot of other fun you could be having right now, and some of that you won't get another chance at later. But honestly, when you're ten years out of college, you're going to wish that you'd used all that expendable time to practice more trumpet and to read more books.

Oh, and by the way, I heard that the 38 year old version of us was trying to track me down. If you see him, tell him that I'm at home tonight. I can't practice because I can't wake up the baby, but I'm trying to get some reading and writing done.

Stick it out, kid. Good luck,
You

P.S. I know how much you hate it when people call you 'kid.' That's kind of why I did it. It's good for you.