I am not an English major, despite popular belief.

I am starting my book this fall. I finally found a title for it. It only took me four years. Four. I can start writing my letters.

A courageously determined pursuit to interview Ben Folds

Winston Churchill has said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

To achieve certain goals in life, determination and courage are some of the biggest factors to doing so. Sure, failure is prone to happening at multiple times in anyone’s lifetime, but does that mean all hope is to be given up and no willpower should be invested in our wants or biggest dreams? I believe not.

Ever since I started listening to music at an early age I had the dream of being a rock star. It did not occur to me until I got my first guitar in middle school that I did not possess the ability of keeping a beat or singing while playing guitar, let alone the skill to play anything besides a simple Blink-182 riff—however, that did not discourage me from a little recreational guitar playing.

Since being a rock star is not the easiest thing to achieve, I decided to settle for meeting a popular musician—specifically, one that I am fond of. I decided that this was a great time to execute that plan since I write for the newspaper—so why not interview a musician? I found my musician: Ben Folds. Ben was playing at the Embassy Theatre here in Fort Wayne. I knew from the start that this would not be an easy task.

In it for the long haul, I did some research, not knowing how to successfully attain this interview. I tried to find any contact information to no avail. I started the journey at Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the parent company of Epic Records. I was unsure which department I had to talk to, so I began my journey of leaving voicemails on corporate inboxes and sending emails to anyone who seemed legit enough to get me my interview.
A half an hour after leaving about four or five voicemails, I got a call from an area code in New York—I was so nervous I almost missed the call on purpose so I would only have to listen to the voicemail. Picking up the phone, I was greeted by a publicist for Sony BMG and given the phone number to an Epic Records publicist located in Los Angeles, California, to which I responded with, “Awesome!”

I called the number and once again got a voicemail. The next day I was greeted from a phone call from Epic Records and was directed to send her an e-mail with contact information and a brief explanation for the publication I am involved with. E-mail sent. Fastest response I have ever given—I was so excited.
Two weeks went by and I didn’t hear a thing. I began to lose interest in this interview, and then right as my hopes were fading, I got an e-mail with contact information. Finally, after two weeks, more progress! Again, I sent a quick response to my contact at Big Hassle Publicity. No e-mail. Another two weeks went by.

Discouragement got in the way of my determination. I almost gave up, until I got tired of being pushed away from what would be one of the biggest interviews of my life. I found the company’s phone number and began making my calls. Finally after numerous attempts, I was directed to a publicist named Ken. He was a nice guy, but quickly I found he was not the man I needed to talk to. He directed me to Nicole, who would be able to get me exactly what I needed—FINALLY! She accomplished more in my quest to get this interview than anyone else I had talked to.

It was two days before the concert and I still had not heard a final answer on if I had the interview or not. I went around asking everyone I knew, “What would you ask if you met one of your favorite musicians?” I got a lot of irrelevant interview questions, such as “Will you have my babies?”, but it made me realize the questions I wanted to ask: everything that nobody else would think to ask him. I did not want the cookie-cutter interview.

The day before and I had still heard no response. I made four calls that day. Two out of the four times, she was “not at her desk”, which I believe was staged so she did not have to talk to me yet again.

I never got a call back—instead, an email. I knew would not be good. “I appreciate your patience with me on this,” was the first line and my heart dropped, “but it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to schedule this for tomorrow...with travel and other commitments, we couldn’t make it work with Ben’s schedule.”
My heart sank. I did not let it get to me. I failed; however, I had gotten further than most people have. I took a dream and I tried to turn it into an epic interview that would be the biggest interview of my life. But hey, now I’ve got connections—his tour publicist hooked me up with two tickets to the show, of which was one of the best Ben Folds shows I have been to (and free!). Sure, he wasn’t full band, but he blew the Embassy away with the help of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

What happens now? I suppose, for now, waiting until the next time Ben comes around Fort Wayne. As long as you have a dream and the determination to achieve a goal, most people will take the time to listen to what you have to say. For me, this isn’t a failure—it is a success. Although I did not actually get to interview him, I had the trip of a lifetime talking to big-shot publicists who could get me exactly what I needed. Now the only thing left is a bunch of unanswered questions which trouble my mind and curiosity.

A lifetime of writing

Lives are spent writing; whether the writing is for a book, publication, or notes for remembering certain events, writing is an essential practice of everyday lives. To some, writing comes naturally, but to others writing is compared to the fears of confronting a bear—scared of how to approach it and how to interpret mismatched thoughts into sentences that develop and flow. I realized that “confronting the bear” not only meant writing, but took a lot of work getting used to and improving.

Preschool classes were spent writing names on large pieces of paper and decorating them with crayons and finally, in kindergarten, learning to spell the simplest words such as “cat” and “dog.” Writing as a young child was probably one of the biggest achievements, when guessing was always right and handwriting was new. These were the earliest memories I had as a child, when I used to write my name in half lowercase letters and half in uppercase letters. Early years in education were filled with wide ruled paper where letters were formed and words were spelled and where writers first learned taking a pencil to paper.

Elementary teachers always ask the bold question, “Write something about yourself if you live to be one hundred years old.” Writing is not just the forming of words into sentences. Writing is personality. What forms the sentences are vivid imagination, personality, and perspective. “When I’m one hundred years old I’m not going to have any teeth,” was my response as a first grade student, with a badly drawn image of myself in an orange jumpsuit and lopsided head.

I did not even remotely start liking to write until high school. I had a high school teacher that really changed writing and the experience; he looked like Ben Folds and was dorky and had the same sense of humor as him, too. Instead of a piano, he rocked a pen and journal and was slightly less famous as a musician. He made writing fun by assigning papers but granting the freedom of writing anything we wanted within certain guidelines. “Classifications of Co-workers,” “The Best Gig Ever,” and “Having Fun At Work” were just a few titles of articles where I was given the chance to turn a requirement into an essay full of excitement, as well as writing music, movie, and short video clip reviews in class.

Throughout my middle and high school career I put out nothing but half-assed papers with little to no thought, hoping to “just get by” until I finally opened my eyes to realize that if effort and personality are put into a paper it will turn into something a world better than a piece written to get through a class. Have fun with the assignment. Sometimes all it takes to get motivation spewing is a deep voiced, Ben Folds-like, former attorney turned teacher to change the way writing is perceived and how it affects anyone as a person.

Sophomore year I decided to take a journalism class, which if I completed two semesters would get me into a publications program. I went through the two semesters of classes and joined our school’s student magazine and I wrote on the staff for two years, which gave me the ability to put my creative thinking into public view. Not only is it hard to get a high school student to pick up a magazine, but what was even harder was getting the student interested and not losing his or her attention.

Features stories were mostly my niche within the publication, where I wrote music or restaurant reviews or even defined the word “music” and what it meant to others—which was answered differently every time. Not only is writing something for others to read and enjoy rewarding, but being able to see my words in a publication is one of the best feelings to experience.

Writing can be used to put a point across, to relieve stress, or just to write a grocery list for the following day. Writing is used almost every day and is almost crucial for every job. Throughout my high school career, I found that the only bad writing is no writing. Sure, a paper with no effort may turn out a decent grade, but there is no doubt that the paper could have been better if more thought and personality was put forth. I realized that “confronting the bear” not only meant writing, but writing with confidence, effort, and personality; a lot of improvement and hard work makes for great literature.