Reflections after Karaoke

Today I did karaoke.

I used to be terrified to sing in front of people and I still sort of was until last year, when my friend Blake Parker and I started a band and then did a lot of karaoke to work on our chemistry.

I was terrified and it didn't help that I met this guy I dated for a little bit at the bar we always sang at. So then I was doubly nervous.

My first time being afraid to do karaoke was in a limo. I was 6 or 7. I had sold enough cups to win a limo ride to McDonalds. There was karaoke in the car. Before He Cheats came on and I felt shy because I knew the song and wanted to sing it but was afraid to in front of other people.

I don't know where this shyness came from, but as I get older maybe it was being different? The only brown girl in the room? Or maybe God put my extroversion in the oven to let it get really well done before I could learn to be myself.

Today I did karaoke. I sang Before He Cheats in front of a room of stangers. It was fun. There was another gentleman doing a bunch of songs.

"You should go on American Idol" I told him. He told me the same thing. They kept calling me New York.

I wanted to sing Henry, Come On, but they didn't have it on karafun yet, so I sang Diet Mountain Dew. And I thought about myself as a little girl. What she would think if she could see me now. That's the trick I think. Always doing it to prove to young you that you can.