You Have a Gift and You Need to Continue to Use It

Faith in a Journey

By Melissa Tegeler (7:40 MWF)

“You have a gift and you need to continue to use it,” was the one comment from a stranger I will always remember. It was in that moment when I realized what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was just a normal Saturday night and I was rehearsing for choir, like any other Saturday night. Tonight I was excited because I was singing a solo and the song had always been one of my favorite songs. As I got up to the microphone and began my song, the entire congregation was silent… “Were you there when they nailed him to the tree…” I finished the song and silently left the stage with a “great job” gesture from the director. As I returned to my seat the congregation was still silent in awe.

At a young age I had already participated in choirs for years. In elementary school I became a member of the advanced choir. Later I became a member of Desert Stars, an honor choir at my middle school. My main reason for doing all of this was for fun; I was more concerned with sports not music. As a child I participated in an arry of sports and other activities. I was the typical overachiever trying to do everything but never completely focusing on one activity. Music was just a past time - I never thought of it as a career option. Then I met Jody Kienzler.

Up to this point I had lived in seven different places thought my life, because my dad was in the military. When I heard rumors of moving again it was hardly news for me. The last move was from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Tucson, AZ. We had only been in Tucson for two years and I had just begun middle school. As hard as it was, this was my life; I was a military brat.

It was just a lazy Sunday; I was finishing homework when out of the blue my parents called a family meeting. Sitting there my parents looked puzzled, probably holding in bad news. As my brother and I gathered around the kitchen table joining our parents we shared a nervous look, then returned our gaze towards our parents. The thought of moving had never crossed our minds, we had only lived there for two years and we normally stay for four.

Finally, dad looks at us and says: “I have some news. We’re moving to California.” I felt my heart sink into my stomach. My throat became dry and my eyes filled with tears. I closed my eyes trying not to cry, but I quickly felt the warm drops rolling down my cheeks.

Later on I came to accept the move. In just two months time I would begin packing and we would be changing states once again. The comfort I had while moving was mostly because of my dad and his kind words. He always said: “there is a reason and God has a plan we just don’t know what it is yet.” Hearing this once again I think, yeh yeh that’s all great but what about the life I’ve made here, my friends? I had mixed feelings. I was excited about California, but I was also upset about moving again. But then again I imagined how I could go to the beach all the time, learn to surf, and have the perfect “Cali” life you always hear about. I was going to be a “California girl.”

I soon found out that Vacaville was far from the typical “California”. As we drove into Vacaville I discovered why the locals called it cow town. Everywhere you looked there were rolling hills and cows grazing. This is not the California I pictured. The rolling waves were replaced with rolling hills and the golden sand was golden grass. Sitting in the car looking out my window I thought to myself, this was not California, what had we gotten ourselves into?

It always took a while to get used to the new places. School was school, but the one thing that our family did together was go to church. It was Saturday night and we decided to try out a new church. There was nothing particularly special about this church, it was a typical Catholic mass but one thing was different; on Saturday nights they had a girl’s choir sing. I sat there in my seat listening to the youthful voices of the girls in the choir; you could see how they truly loved the music and were all friends. Hearing the choir brought back memories of Arizona and my choir at school. I wish I could be a part of that. I talked to my mom about the choir and we discussed how that would be a good way to meet people and be involved in the church. So a week later after mass I approached the choir director. I have never been good at talking to new people. As I approached the director my heart beat faster and faster in anticipation of what, she would say. As I spoke to the director, Jody, her voice put me at ease. It was a high pitched annoying sound, reminding me of Minnie mouse. When I finished talking to “Jody” she was more than happy to have me join the choir. I’m not sure why I was so nervous. But now looking back, I had every right to be nervous, this day would be the day I met Jody Kienzler and everything in my life would change. My direction in life took a 180 degree turn from the desire to be a marine biologist to wanting to be a singer.

The girl’s choir rehearsed every Saturday at 3pm in preparation for the mass at 5 pm. Becoming a member of the choir was everything I had hoped for; new friends, singing and little did I know the woman that would change my direction in life.

After rehearsal one day I was talking with Jody about how I was thinking of taking voice lessons. She quickly mentioned she taught lessons. I thought, well ok I guess I could take from you, but I was not completyconvinced. Once again I talked it over with my mom. She convinced me I should give it a chance. My mom has always been supportive of my aspirations. As long as I am enjoying what I am doing and working hard at it. She is willing to support me fully.

So a week later, on Wednesday, I was outside Jody’s house. It was a small one story house in an older neighborhood. The house was not in the best condition but she had the most beautiful flowers lining the walkway to her door. As I came close to the door, I immediately heard the music coming from the house. You could almost see the music notes seeping out of every crack in the house. It was the sound of musicians being molded, as I soon would find out. As I knocked on the door, I heard Jody, “coooome iiiin” in her singing voice. Entering her house, the door slowly creaked, filling me with warmth. It reminded me of my grandmother’s house, an unexplainable smell that can only be expressed by the sent of love and joy. This was truly the essence of Jody.

The first song that I learned with Jody was “Love Has Eyes.” At the time it seemed very challenging with notes all over the place. It was like someone went crazy and threw ink all over the page and called it music. Needless to say I was intimidated by the piece, but as I began to sing, the words just came out and it seemed easy. As we finished, Jody looked at me pleased and a glowing smile saying, “Missy you are so much farther along at your age than I ever was and you have natural talent.” This kept me going, ok I guess this is the right thing to be doing, someone thinks I have talent. And over the four years I spent with Jody, I would develop this raw talent into a sophisticated lyric soprano voice.

It was finally senior year and all I could think about was having fun and finally graduating. But there was also college to think about. Over the past four years Jody had not only become my vocal teacher, but a mentor and friend. So it was only natural that we would talk about what I would do for college. Now that I was studying with Jody, I was loving music and had serious thoughts about doing music therapy. So that week at my lesson I told Jody how I thought I might major in music therapy. Being that it was a profession with music, I thought she would be totally thrilled. But surprisingly she looked at me with this questioning look asking “Do you really want to work with old people, who are just going to die and little whiny children?” Shocked by what she said I paused before I could respond “Well… I think it would be fun?”

Still not convinced, Jody once again questioned me. “Are you sure? Missy you don’t want to do that. You love performing don’t you?”

“Well yeh I do!” I responded.

“Then do that Missy, you’re a performer I can see it. You love being on that stage. I majored in organ education and hated it. I wanted to perform and I know you do too.” After that little discussion it was just sort of set from that point on I was going to major in vocal performance. She helped me to not be afraid of what I really wanted. Jody saw in me what I had not seen in myself. She pushed me to what she knew I could do; helping me find faith in myself. So for the next four months we prepared for my audition at ASU. I had to sing two songs of contrast. I practiced the songs over and over. I could sing them and not even think about what I was doing. The songs had become like a story I had known for years, every detail was engrained into my memory and still has not left me to this day.

The day had finally come, it was audition day. I woke up that morning at 7 am, went through my normal beauty routine but putting a little extra time in to making sure I looked extra pretty and stood out to the judges. With curlers in my hair I stood in the back room of my brother’s apartment warming up my voice, then singing my songs. I sang my songs once for my mom. When I finished she told me, “You’ll do fine you know this and you sound great.” Taking out my curlers and fixing my hair, I took deep breaths, I told myself, I’m going to do great I know these songs. Just as I left the apartment to leave for my audition, I got a text message from one of my friends in California. She wrote “I love you Missy. I’m not sure when your audition is but I just wanted to tell you you’re going to do great. You sound amazing! You can call me later if you want.” At that point I was ready; everyone was behind me 100% and wishing me the best.

I got into the car with my parents and we drove to the music building. As we entered it was surreal, this is where I could be in 6 months studying music.

Escorted by a student helper, my mom and I and another girl and her mom got onto the elevator. The other girl and I made small talk about where we were from and nervously laughed as we anticipated our audition only minutes away now. I departed from the group to go through my songs one last time. Keeping close watch on the time making sure not to be late, I left my practice room rejoining my parents. As I stood outside the recital hall, my heart began to beat fast. I had butterflies in my stomach, enough that I was surprised I didn’t take flight. I stood looking at my mom with a blank stare and in the background I heard another audition in front of me, which just caused my nerves to worsen. It was now only five minutes until my audition. I was met by my accompanist, giving her the music and clumsily shuffling my resume not knowing what to do with them. “Are you ready?” she asked. Here it was the moment of truth, “would you like your parents to come in?” the judges asked. This totally threw me off “um sure but sit on the side?” I could not concentrate with them staring at me. “Whenever you’re ready.” Deep breath ok here I go, I nodded to the pianist to begin. And as quickly as it started it was all over. Now it was just wait and see. I felt like I did well, but I was still unsure.

It was to be about a month before I received any news of the audition. I returned to California, with everyone asking about my audition. The next week things were back to normal and I tried to put it out of my mind. I still had senior year to finish and lots of fun activities to look forwarded to. With all the craziness of school, I stopped checking the mail and forgot about the auditions.

Going on with my schedule as normal, it was a typical Tuesday night. I stumbled in late to evening rehearsal for choir because I had just finished swim practice. As I got my music out, I heard a low rumble vibrating the floor, oh my phone, picking it up I had no idea what I was going to read. It was from my mom she never texted me, “Are your ready for some good news, you got a letter from ASU, you were accepted to the school of music for vocal performance!” At that moment a smile spread across my face. I tried to contain my excitement. We were in the middle of a rehearsal, and my friend gave me this look of, what’s wrong with you have a really stupid grin on your face, so I showed her the message. And immediately she raised her hand like a torpedo shooting out of a submarine with an urgent look on her face. Our director naturally asked, “Yes Isa?” “Missy has some news, go ahead tell them” “Um I got into the school of music.” Everyone then congratulated me. I couldn’t believe this I was going to be a music major. If someone told me when I was a freshman in high school that I would be a vocal major I would have thought them to be crazy, now I see it’s not that crazy.

My entire journey to come to ASU, majoring in music, began, when I met Jody. She showed me how much I could love music. Bringing out that natural talent that I had and polishing it, is all she will take credit for, but she did so much more. I also grew tremendously in my faith. Jody showed me how to use it, to praise and glorify God, which is the most important thing. Through my music I saw that God gave me this gift. As long as my faith is my driving force I know I will be ok.

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