Con Fuoco Band Practice and Revelations

Hey everyone! Haha I thought that comic was pretty funny.... lobster humor. Naturally. Haha, just your daily dose of morbid humor. But think next time you decide to cook a lobster alive. I'm sure they don't appreciate it.

Anyways... on a more serious note. This blog is going to be about (of all people) Hayzen Hunter. Someone that I would never expect to be blogging about, much less even think about outside of band practice. For the longest time, I've known Hayzen as the big-headed arrogent member of the band. Who always shows off when we practice, and couldn't give a crap about what anyone tells him. He's usually the epicenter (I just used a science word!) of our band drama.

So today, when I walked into the Blur room to begin setting up for practice and he said, "Hey, Cosette!" I knew something was just a bit off. Not since the first day I met him has he ever acknowledged my prescense, and much less called me by name. In the summer, when we first joined Con Fuoco, I attempted to make some sort of conversation with him, but soon gave up after all of our conversations consisted of one word answers, or him just ignoring my existence completely. He always isolated himself from me with an air of arrogance. I always figured that he was trying to tell me that he was better than me, and I would never meet his guitar-playing standards.

After I muttered a surprised "Hey there." and plugged in my guitar to the sound system, I started to play everything I knew because I had arrived about a half and hour early for practice. And I'm not going to lie... I was pretty dang good. For the first time, I played Decode perfectly, nailed all the notes on Every Breath You Take at full speed, and didn't completely disgrace Randy Rhoads with my pathetic attempt at playing Crazy Train. It was a miracle! In the meanwhile, Hayzen was setting up his huge vintage amp and plugging in his guitar. Although I might be completely off, but I think, that in that time that he listened to me jam on my Les Paul, that he finally noticed me for the guitar player I was. There was some kind of respect and understanding of skills that had settled between us, as odd as that sounds.

During the rest of band practice, something was different. It was actually fun and exciting, rather than serious and mandatory. We spent about ten minutes messing around and electrocuting ourselves with 55 watts of the pure useless energy that was flowing through Allie and Hayzen's guitars. We joked around a little more than usual and all laughed at the randomest stuff. I think it made a difference that everyone was involved. Also, when Allie refused to listen to my suggestions to fix certain songs and such, Hayzen stood up for me. It was the weirdest thing ever.

Now all of this maybe be insignificant, and maybe I imagined everything, but for me, this small change was revolutionary. It marked how far I've really come.

I've attended South Mountain Community Church since I was in either Kindergarten or First Grade, and this has been the first year I've actually felt accepted. I still remember the days when I used to sit by myself in the corner, talking on the phone with Alyse, or texting, because I had no one to talk to. I used to invite Xandra to church every Wednesday to hang out with me; since I was in the band, it was required that I come to church every Sunday and Wednesday, and I knew no one. I was afraid that no one would accept me, so I mostly kept to myself. During the last few months, I decided that I should open up to people and magically, I started making friends. Today, a few of my friends grabbed me and begged (on their knees) Sandy to let me come to the 9th grade small group with them. After years of fitting in no where, it was nice.

So maybe, figment of my imagination or not, it wasn't really Hayzen that changed... maybe it was me.