I am a day behind in the blogging A to Z challenge. My post for the letter V should have been done Saturday but I had a crazy busy weekend, so here I am now. And V is for violin.

People who know me now but didn’t know me as a child find it hard to believe that I used to play the violin. A violinist doesn’t mesh with the tattooed, loud-mouthed, cuss-like-a-truck-driver chick that I am today. But I was indeed a violinist. I played for about 3 or 4 years, if I recall my ages correctly, and I was actually pretty good at it, if people were to be believed.

I lived in Omaha from 1st-6th grade, and in Omaha at that time, orchestra was popular as opposed to band which is popular other places. I started the violin in 3rd or 4th grade and really enjoyed playing it. I got private lessons from a woman who played violin with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and I enjoyed having her as a teacher very much.

I remember she had me try unusual things to break my bad habits. For instance, I would swing my bow arm so she had me go through “Chinese Wall Torture”, where I had to play the violin with my bow arm stuck up against a wall so I wouldn’t swing it. I also used to flatten my left wrist against the neck of the violin so she had me tape a tack to the bottom of the neck of the violin so every time I flattened my wrist, I’d poke myself with the tack. That habit didn’t take long to break!

I quit playing the violin when I moved to Illinois in between 6th and 7th grade. Band was the big thing here, not orchestra, so nobody else played violin. I got teased and made fun of for playing the violin so I quit. It is on my top 5 list of things I regret in life.

I finally got rid of my violin a few years ago. A colleague of mine gave it to her son to play — he’s pretty talented. It made me happy to know my ax went to a good home where it would be loved and played!