Aaron Larson

For a middle-school child who has just begun to take guitar lessons, the logical next step would seem to be picking up songwriting. The songs may have little originality or sensibility, but they're songs, and with the right influences the child may begin to improve. Every artist will become a lesson in writing. Every song will become a lesson on what to do and what not to do. Writing will become a delicate balance of avoiding clichés and awkward elements yet having a way to connect with someone or speak in some way. He will come home from school every day to a rural home environment with ample opportunity for solitude, giving him plenty of time to test new ideas on a borrowed recorder. The time will come, and the college experience will be a resource and influence more potent than the boy has experienced as of yet. In his situation, every day will be a learning experience. By now, hopefully that kid is no longer a kid, and hopefully his identity is a bit more concretized than before. Hopefully he still makes time to write, and hopefully he takes his writing seriously, but not too seriously. Hopefully if he does, he doesn't try to make it seem like he doesn't, as a safeguard against failure.