The Ledge - how about *another* newbie?

Well, hi. :wavey: I've been a lurker for a few months now and I've thought about introducing myself before, but I just haven't gotten the guts. So I might as well do this while I'm relatively confident that I'm not going to say something stupid and be laughed at for the rest of my life. (And if you still wanna laugh, it's fine by me. Being funny is good. :) )

My name is Kortni. It's pronounced just like you think it is. I am a girl who spent the night before her 18th birthday at the most incredible concert on the planet in Houston after seeing the Mac for the first time in Dallas this year... both times I saw them I was on Brett Tuggle's side (more on that later). Since I'm going to be graduating this year (given I can pass English *crosses fingers*) and I have a little more of a sense of adventure now that I've been traveling more recently, I thought at first that I wanted to go to college in California... but then I thought no, wait a while, spend a year at home, then if I still can't stand it here I'll pack up and move out to the west coast. :D I have no idea where I'm going to college. Two colleges have offered me full paid scholarships, one is considering me, and I'm struggling to finish a foreign language course in time to get money from the state. Wherever I go, it's going to be a really hard toss-up between special education and music.

I love working with special ed kids. Right now I'm working with an autistic girl at a local elementary school and I'm helping her learn sign language since she can't talk very well. She's doing extremely well and one day in February I'm going to spend the entire day with her because she seems to understand sign language better than speech. My parents want to see me get into special ed, but I've got a slight problem with that...

I'm a musician. It all started when I was 2 and "Little Lies" came on the radio in the car; my mom says I started singing with it by the end of the song. I've been singing ever since I can remember, even though my parents used to swear I couldn't carry a tune. I started playing piano when I was 8 but I didn't figure out how to read sheet music until I was 10 or 11, so I spent at least two years playing entirely by ear. Now that I've been out of lessons for about a year and a half, I'm actually finding that it's easier to sightread a piece. I love to write music, I can't leave the house without something to write on or I'll lose ideas... but most of the time when I set out to write a song I have some kind of idea of what I want already in mind and I'm never happy with what I come up with. I have a few songs that are finished and ready to record... now I just need to figure out how to get a good recording. I have a few recordings I've posted on my website and I'm in the (slow) process of teaching myself how to play guitar... and it is just that - a slow and brutal process. I have really tiny, weak hands... and it's extremely frustrating. Sort of unrelated, but I'll tell you all about the pinky if you wanna hear the story... :nod:

I don't really have a bunch of favorites - I'm so bogged down with freaking schoolwork all the time that I don't have much time to watch TV or go see a movie with someone and any free time that I do get is usually spent either catching up on something or at the piano. I have one keyboard that is entirely too much of a hassle to move around because I don't have a car it fits in and I either have to pester my mom or my friend (who's proudly declared herself my roadie for life) to move it. But I like it - I played it at an assembly last fall and even though stage crew conveniently forgot to turn on my director box, you could still hear it from the back of the auditorium if I turned the volume all the way up - and that's not all that loud to me. It's proved its worth. :)

There are two people that I look up to (I guess this kinda counts as favorites) and if it weren't for them, I honestly don't think I'd be chasing this dream down like I am - Christine McVie and Brett Tuggle. When The Dance was released (yes, I'm a Dancer), I saw Chris playing "Don't Stop" and genuinely having the time of her life with it. I was 12 at the time and I was seriously considering dropping piano - my parents had just split up, I was spending ridiculous amounts of time away from home and I never had time to practice anyway, but when I saw Chris, it was all over. I wanted to be *just like her* and still kinda do. I'm very proud of the fact that I can play "Songbird" from memory and that I won first place in the talent show with it. :D This year when I saw the Mac, I was at a point where I was questioning if I really should continue to pursue music (my parents have made it pretty obvious that they don't think I have a chance), but then I saw Brett having so much fun and really getting into the music, feeling it as opposed to just playing it as I had been taught to do... and something just grabbed me and told me I had to do what he was doing. I realized that music is my life and if I give it up, I know I'll never be happy. So I went home, did a little research, and as far as musical background goes, Brett and I have almost word-for-word identical roots. I really, really look up to him - more than words can ever express - and he's very special to me. :)

Sorry this is so long... but it's great to be here! :D