Your past is important but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.
I'll be brief with my entry. I think that if I talk too much about the things that I consider memorable, I will dilute them. Memorable moments makes us gasp and stand in sheer astonishment as our brains try to get a hold of whatever is happening.
I remember starting last year with a lot of expectations. I had been back on HIVE for around 2 months (I think). There was work to do with an instrument and another request came by. I never thought that by the end of the year, I would've sold 3 and have a 4th request on the making. My memorable moments of 2021 are each time I completed a sell or got an instrument request.
There aren't pictures of all of these moments. Some clients are like that. They tell you the picture will be made right away, but you see them doing everything but that. I guess taking a picture takes a lot of time and effort. Maybe traveling tires less. Who knows? However, I do have some wonderful pictures of some ladies that have gotten my Venezuelan Cuatros on their hands. And, lo, it always make me smile.
And even if these sales numbers are pretty low, it's like my teacher often says:
There's this thing about selling just 1 instrument. It's the fuel that keeps you going.
I also make sure to follow up each sell to get some feedback from the owner of the instrument. That's another way to improve what I'm doing. The year ended well as I'm currently working on a request and there are some potential clients on the horizon. Not bad for my first year dedicated to this line of work. Without these lovely ladies, I wouldn't be still working on this craft. They have truly made my year a memorable one. And I believe other ladies will come along the line and do the same.
As the new year dawns, there's countless possibilities about what might happen with my "workshop". There's one constant. Working as hard as a I can to achieve goals and keep receiving all this feedback. I bet that sooner or later an instrument will reach hands of a famous musician. When it does, I'll remember the time and the smiles of all those wonderful people who were there from the beginning of the venture.
There's a certain type of joy that comes from making something with your hands, from scratch and then giving it to someone else. The look in their eyes tells a lot. People who often tell me about how I came to me for my work are often impressed by all of it. It is an interesting experience. I would add something about the things I didn't do in the past. I should have started with this earlier, but there's no hurry when good things come at us. I'm enjoying my time learning and looking at how it improves little by little. If I can bring joy with what I do, then there's a lot to gain in life for me. And I wouldn't change it for anything.
