The Liebster + Sunshine Blogger Awards!

Hello, friends!

I’ve been nominated for two awards! Thank you to Carol at Kaleidoscopic Life, for the Liebster Award, and to Aris at Awkward Aris for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Go check out these two blogs, because they’re awesome. Carol’s blog has beautiful poetry and photography, and Aris’ blog has posts loaded with humor and fun!

Let’s get on with the awards, shall we?

The Liebster Award

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Display the award on your blog.
3. Provide ten random facts about yourself (optional)
4. Nominate 5-11 bloggers whom you feel deserved this award and have less than 200 followers.
5. List these rules.
6. Inform nominees.

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Let’s see, for the ten random facts, I think I’ll share them in the form of a story – a story about my journey as a pianist, which I’ve been aching to share with people. So don’t worry about extracting a list of ten facts from the following writing – just read it and, I hope, enjoy it.

            I started playing piano when I was six years old. Since then, I’ve only grown in my love of it. I especially love to play Broadway music on my piano – music from Hamilton, Beauty and the Beast, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera – and pretend that I’m an actual Broadway pianist, playing with the orchestra in a large theatre!

Four years ago, I decided that I wanted to teach piano to children. I was ten at that point, so still a kid myself (and now I’m fourteen, so I still am a kid… just a kid that’s a couple years further along than her students). I started with a five-year-old little boy across the street. We moved along slowly, but as I taught this little boy, I learned many of the skills I needed for the eleven kids I teach now.

I used to teach piano on a little keyboard – the one I’d learned on. But two years ago, for Christmas, my grandmother gave me a piano! It’s a beautiful upright piano, made in the early nineteen hundreds. With the help of my other grandmother, we painted it Paris grey.

So I have had the amazing pleasure of teaching eleven bright and interesting kids one of my dearest passions, on a beautiful real piano – and when you’ve been playing on a keyboard all your life, a real piano becomes a big deal. 😉

 

Recently a few of my students had a recital at a retirement home. I remember sitting there, watching one of my little guys – the first of them to present – playing on the baby grand piano, the sound of his fingers hitting one simple key at a time filling the room. The little six-year-old was wearing a formal suit, with a tie and nice shoes and everything! The parents were proud, the seniors were happy, and the other students listening to him were inspired. As I sat there, smiling at that child, who had worked so hard and devotedly so that he could bless all these people, I realized that this, this is what I’m teaching piano for – so that children can learn at their early age that skills are for blessing other people.

So yes, when I play piano by myself, I like to fantasize about being a Broadway pianist. But my real identity as a pianist is a teacher. As a teacher, I get to see the bright smiles on my little students when they play a song right for the first time, I get to watch their excitement when they pick prizes from inside the piano bench, I get to watch them grow in their skills as memorizers, sight-readers, improvisers, and artists – but best of all, I get to have the honor of teaching these children how to spread joy to others through music.

And that, my friends, is a compilation of facts about my journey as a pianist. I guess I sort of broke the rules, but I’m a story-teller, therefore I couldn’t settle with saying 1) I’m a piano teacher, 2) I have eleven students, etc. Nope, it had to be a story.

Nominations:

Now for my nominations! I would love to nominate every wonderful blog I’ve come across, but my knowledge is limited and the rule is 5-11 bloggers (but lucky for me, I also have the Sunshine Blogger Award so I get to nominate eleven more people in just a moment!).

The Words of a Writer by Allison Joy

The Homeschooler’s Hangout by Victoria and Mariah

Joyfully Adventurous by Jessi Walker

Wild Imagination by Penelope Crumb

Now All I Know is Grace by Hailey Hudson

Amazing Adventure by Rebecca Tederoff

Brooke Jade Writes by Brooke

Uniquely Magic by Annie Xia

A Notebook, One Pen, and Me by Saanvi

Early Bookish Birds by Amira and Nada

The Adventurette by Faith

The Sunshine Blogger Award

Rules:

1. Thank the person(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or on your blog.

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

            The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring, while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

Oh, I sure hope I’m spreading sunshine with my stories!

Aris’ Questions:

1. If you could go back in time and witness any one moment in history, what would it be and why?

            I don’t really know of any big historic moment I would particularly like to witness, but something I would like to witness is a fancy dinner at a fancy estate during the Victorian era. I love the formality and romance of that era, especially as depicted in Pride and Prejudice, so I’d love to see it in complete authenticity.

2. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

            This is not going to be interesting… the weirdest thing I ever ate was couscous. I hate the way it tastes.  

3. What is your favorite word?

Oh, I have tons of favorite words. But one of my favorites is antiestablishmentarianism because it’s ssssooooo long! (And yes, it’s a real word – go look it up.)     

4. What is your least favorite word?

I don’t give much thought to words I dislike, but I definitely don’t like it when certain words are over-used in books. That can cause me to get tired of them (which is sad). 

5. Pineapple on pizza?

Sure!

6. What question do you hate answering?

When people ask me if they can try on my glasses, and I let them, and they try them on, it’s usually followed by this question: “Wow, how blind are you?” Eh hem, I’m not blind, people. I have a different prescription – common knowledge.

7. What type of music do you like?

HAMILTON. Yes, it’s its own genre. Seriously, though, I love Broadway music. I also like new age piano solos and instrumentals.  

8. What’s the worst joke you’ve ever heard?

I don’t know, but I hate corny jokes (don’t we all, though?).

9. Which country/city would you like to visit the most?

New York City – the greatest city in the world! I was born there, so I’m a New Yorker at heart. I’ve been there several times, but I’d be stoked to go again. J

10. What are you opinions on socks?

Funny question, Aris! I don’t have any opinions on socks… other than the common uses for them that everyone already knows.    

11. Why?

I don’t give a lot of thought to my socks so this elaboration on the topic is throwing me off…

Nominations:

My nominations for the Sunshine Blogger Award are:

A Light in the Darkness by Gracie Chick

Reveries by Kellyn Roth

Annie Likes Words by Annie Earnshaw

Wengiegirl by Shivee

Kaleidoscopic Life by Carol

The 412 Project by Esther

The Sea Calls Us Home by Ruby Sky

Liv a Little by Liv

Charis Rae by Charis Rae

Aqsa Says What? by Asqa

Forever and Everly by May

These lovely blogs definitely spread sunshine! Here are my questions for my nominees:

1. What motivated you to start blogging?
2. Do you have a favorite story to tell people? (Hint: That’s a queue to tell US that story.)
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. In what ways did this author inspire you in your own writing?
5. What’s the greatest thing about your best friend?
6. Camp or stay at a hotel?
7. Fantasy or contemporary?
8. If you could meet any fictional character, which would it be?
9. Do you have a special “spot” for reading?
10. Do you ever binge-read?
11. Does music distract you while you’re reading or do you prefer it?

I can’t wait to hear your answers!

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I would also like to say that I’m 25 followers away from 100! Thank you to all my followers for reading my stories and hitting that “follow” button – it means so much to me. I hope that my community of readers will continue to grow right along with my writing.

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Lastly, I’m going to try and start a discussion. *squeals* Yay!

Discussion Time!

If any of the questions I assigned to my Sunshine Blogger nominations sound like fun to answer to you, please go ahead and answer them in the comments! I love meeting and getting to know other bloggers and would love to hear from you. 🙂

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And that’s all for now. I’ll be back at The Bus Stop with a new story to tell soon!

 

~ Rayne at The Bus Stop