Dear 1999

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So it's the last couple days of 2009, and we're about to leave the land of the single-digit-2000's. New decades are interestingly cool, for some reason. I'm not sure why, but things tend to get divided that way. We know that on January 1st, 1970, the hippies didn't all turn in their flower power for disco balls. Changes happen more gradually than that, but looking at a decade's identity can be informative, if not fun.

So after having lived the last 10 years, what advice would I have for myself back in 1999?

That's a damn good question. I could get reeeaalllyyy deep and say that I wouldn't want to tell myself anything, because then it would alter who I was and thus change who I became which would make 2009 me no longer exist... but that's too geeky. Let's assume the question is of philosophical and perhaps even spiritual nature, and now we'll see what I got.

In 1999, I finished up my 2nd year of community college (taking GE classes and practicing a lot) and transferred to the University of North Texas as a jazz guitar major. That's when I moved out of my parents' house in central California and moved to Denton, Texas. It was a lot to handle all at once in several departments, but I was confident and plowed through. I'm not going to say it wasn't difficult (in fact it was hard work and lots of challenges), but it was a great experience.

Undergrad in Texas led to moving to L.A. and a Masters degree at U.S.C. That led to developing gigs in L.A., to playing in several bands and making a few records, to touring the U.S. extensively. And that led to doing my first solo record, and that led me to now... I'm making a second record under my name.

So if I was going to give advice to myself back in 1999, knowing what the next 10 years would be like, I would tell him this:

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Here's the deal... the next ten years are going to have a lot going on in them. Up's, down's, this way, that way and everywhere in between. I'm not going to bother trying to explain anything in detail, except this:

In the next ten years, you will learn A LOT about life, about music, about yourself, etc. By the end of the decade, it will all boil down to these three things:

Integrity
Determination
Perseverance

This isn't the secret of life, or a guarantee for happiness, or anything like that. It's a mantra -- a way to approach life.

Integrity: Know who you are, what you believe, and what you want. Do not sacrifice or ignore your integrity for anyone.

Determination: Motivate yourself to achieve, no matter how big or small the goal. Your life has a purpose -- seek it, and honor it.

Perseverance: Life is full of obstacles, difficulties and challenges. Learn to deal with them while staying as positive as possible. Integrity and determination can easily falter without perseverance.

There ya go. Enjoy the decade, kid.

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Now, I was starting down the path to that idea back in 1999, but if I had heard that back then it probably wouldn't have meant that much to me. I didn't arrive at the understanding of what all that meant to me until after having the experiences over the last 10 years, so hearing the advice wouldn't help much... but I guess that's not really the point, is it?

Giving advice to yourself ten years ago asks you to "sum up" the last ten years of your life, kinda like how we assign identities to each decade... so I guess that's what I just did. It's not an end-all-be-all statement or conclusion -- if the exercise teaches us anything, it's that in life we always have the opportunity to change -- physically, mentally and spiritually. In fact, it's nearly impossible to avoid change, even if you really don't want it to happen. So, in 2019 will I still believe my mantra? Or will I have evolved it into something else, or abandoned it completely? It's hard to say... fortunately. I like the experiencing part -- it kinda happens all the time and there's no replacement for it. At least, that's how I feel about it today.