Siblings are the best gift my parents ever gave me.
From left: Kelli, Me, Ben, and David (My niece Emma wondering how we got so weird)
Growing up, siblings teach you many important lessons in life: how to share, how to be patient, how to settle arguments, how to jimmy someone out of a laundry shoot with a broomstick. No one makes me laugh harder than my brothers and sister. I'm the oldest, but even now as adults they are still teaching me important life lessons all the time. My little sister has taught me so much about being honest and about being the kind of mom I hope to be someday. My little brothers taught me something just today.
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From left: Josh and Ben, then my brothers David and Ben. |
My brothers David and Ben are in a band, Citizen Way, with two other brothers Josh and Ben. They have been playing together as a band since 2004. David plays drums and Ben plays bass, and they are both self-taught and crazy talented. After 8 years of blood, sweat, tears, and long weekends away from home, they signed a deal early this year with Fair Trade Services, one of the biggest christian music labels in Nashville! While it's exciting, it has been a whirlwind of recording their first single and traveling the country for radio promotion which has meant more blood, more sweat, more tears, and long weeks away from home. But it's working. They have been very well received and are getting some serious airtime on the radio.
I've been listening to the radio the last few days with baited breath, waiting for their song. I feel like my 11 year old self who listened to V100 for hours in my room, just so I could hit record on the tape player as soon as my favorite song came on. (What a little music pirate I was.) And finally it happened. I heard it. I was pulling into my driveway with Jeremiah, frustrated that I kept missing it, and confident of the fact that it would of course play as soon as we went inside, and I heard this on KLOVE national radio network, "Here's a brand new song from Citizen Way, two sets of brothers from the Chicago area. This is dreams coming true right now. " Cue me jacking up the volume and wildly texting my whole family and of course choking up. Even though I know this is just one of many steps in their career, it's a big one, involving millions of people hearing their song. It's exciting to see others recognizing their hard work and talent. I am inspired by watching them take the next step in faith knowing that this is not an easy or glamorous road, but one full of unpaid bills, long road trips, and missing families. It will be worth it though no matter what happens, to have walked through the door that was put in front of them, and to have lived the life they were meant to live in this moment. Today they taught me not to settle for a life of what if's, and to follow dreams, even the ones that seem impractical one step at a time.
So here comes some shameless, proud-big-sister promotion...
Check out Citizen Way performing an acoustic version of their single, "Should've Been Me" for one of the radio stations.
Also the song will officially be released on itunes a week from today, June 26th! Go get it!
