Hello, all! My name is Samantha Minor and this is my FIRST official post on my website. It feels weird that I have a website, but here it is! I'm so excited to be able to share and connect with you all!
A little bit about me: I'm 21 years old and I'm currently pursuing a degree in the Music Business. I'm releasing my first EP on 12-25 this year (Merry Christmassssss) and it's been quite the process. This release is the whole reason behind the website. Tryna get that job and LIFE together! But I wanted to talk a little bit about it in this first post. Because like I said, it's been quite the process.
I started my Kickstarter back in July (2016) and it finished in August. I think we actually physically started on the project in September, but it's been nonstop ever since. It's insane to think that it's finally over and I can finally breathe.
BUT this whole process has been a JOURNEY. I've learned so much about myself, and I really wasn't anticipating that. I knew that I was impatient before... pretty much a no-brainier. But I don't want to say that I learned patience. What I really learned was how to trust.
I felt God calling me to music about 4 years ago, when I first started college. And he laid this project on my heart at that time, but also laid the responsibility to grow and learn as much as I could while I was in college on me as well. So when it came time for this project to become a reality, it felt like everything was going to come together perfectly. And to be honest, I think that's what I expected. But you can probably guess, that's not what happened. In fact it wasn't even close to perfect.
I got scared right away because within the first week, there wasn't a huge response to my Kickstarter. And I was anticipating that all these people who had pushed me to "go for it" over the years would jump right in...
and they didn't. People that I considered close friends and family ignored my posts, emails, and text messages. Not once, not twice, but multiple times throughout the month I was fundraising. Even when I would send messages to them personally, they would completely ignore me. And I can't even explain to you how frustrating that was. Especially when I had people who weren't close to me saying, "I would love to help, but I'm just unable to right now... praying for you...", or something like that. It was hurtful. And it made me wonder if I was really supposed to be doing this. I mean, these are the people that have told me for years that I should. If they don't really believe the things they said, then why should I?
But then came the unexpected. Remember, I said everything didn't go perfectly. But it went. People I had never anticipated to give came forward with huge donations and support. Some of the people I had been anticipating to give came forward last minute. And the more I prayed and gave it over to God, the more He showed me that this was His will. He also showed me how to handle the entire fundraising process and He put strategic people in my life to help me with ideas. When it was all said and done, I met my goal a week ahead of time!
So when we hit the recording process, I'm thinking... here we go! Hard part is over! Nope. Of course there were scheduling conflicts on top of scheduling conflicts. An unavailable studio. A rattling amp. Another unavailable studio. It didn't go perfectly. But it went.
It wasn't as if I had this big light bulb moment where I realized, "Oh! I should just trust God!"... it was an EVERY DAY prayer.
God, I trust you. I feel insecure and scared. But I know this is your will. I'm disappointed by people. But I know this is your will. I feel like this is taking too long. But I know this is your will. I trust you.
Every day. And sometimes, multiple times a day. Because believe it or not, the rest of my life wasn't going so perfectly this whole time either. Whether it was getting caught in an internet scam, my car breaking down at 2am in the sketchiest part of Dallas, or a jacked up tooth implant, it was a ROUGH couple of months. But here I am, at the end of the tunnel, staring at the light, and I'd do it all over again.
I thought I knew what it meant to trust God. But I'd never given Him a situation like this before. I put something out there that made me extremely vulnerable. I took a step in where I KNEW He was calling me, but from which there was no turning back. And as hard as it was to keep my eyes fixed on Him (and I didn't always) these past few months, the reward of His faithfulness is more than I deserve.
I can't wait to share more with you through this blog, and I hope you will stay up with my journey! And I won't always be this serious, of course. I want to post about Music and whether or not I am making it or falling flat on my face, as well as life in general. Mostly, I want to connect with people. And to get you started, these are my beginnings.
-Samantha
