I Love My Uke!

I have been playing ukulele for almost three years now. I’ve always enjoyed singing and I really wanted to learn to play guitar but I could never build up the tolerance to deal with my fingers bleeding from the hard metal strings. After seeing a ukulele player named Julia Nunes perform at a Ben Folds concert, I knew I had finally found an instrument that seemed to be made just for me. It has truly been one of my favorite hobbies since then and I now have a soprano and a tenor ukulele in my collection.

I think that there is a stigma about this instrument that they only play little melodies that sound like hula music for a beach in Hawaii. The YouTube community completely blows that idea out of the water. New and incredible artists like Julia Nunes are everywhere online showing their skills and how modern and versatile the ukulele can be.

Now I’d like to share my absolute FAVORITE ukulele player and actually just one of my favorite artists in general. Danielle Ate the Sandwich does both covers of songs and her own original works. She is really quirky and funny which often seems in stark contast to her inspired, heartfelt and poetic lyrics. I’m going to add some videos below but her YouTube username is www.youtube.com/daniellesmagic if you want to see more!

One of my favorite covers she has done (mostly because it’s my favorite song to wake up to on my alarm clock, haha!):

This song is one of her beautiful originals (you’ll see what I mean by quirky in the video introduction):

Do you have any favorite artists on YouTube? Let me know in the comments! 

Happiness

“May happiness,

pursue you,

catch you

often, and,

should it

lose you,

be waiting

ahead, making

a clearing

for you.”

-A.R. Ammons

I read this poem by A.R. Ammons in a class last semester. Even though I’m an English major, I hate poetry. Sure, Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss are pretty decent but Shakespeare and I will probably never be on good terms. That’s why I was so incredibly shocked by Ammons’ words. They were so simple and yet everything that I wanted to hear. I was instantly comforted and changed.

True happiness comes to people from places we never expected.

The key word in that statement is “true.” I feel like a huge part of the lives we lead is based on the joy we search for. Some people go a negative route that focuses on the superficial and the material influences of the world to make them feel better for even just a small period of time, some find a form religion that eases their personal demons, and some become obsessed or overwhelmed by the concept of happiness and give up on the quest. I want to tell everyone that I do believe that the quest is worth the reward.

We have to keep moving forward no matter what. It gets better and there will always be something so great waiting for you down the road if you just keep going.