February 20th, 2011: SugarKane Gumbo

Of everything I’ve learned  (and haven’t learned) I know that nothing can complete your life or have you feel like you have a purpose quite like love.  The number 23 is a special number to me, the 23rd is the day I met my first true love.

Flashback 13 years ago: I was 18 years old and knew exactly what I was going to do with my life.   I was in college studying music composition, with full confidence I would be one of the next great composers of our generation and my fiance, the first true love in my life had been offered a football scholarship – heading straight toward the NFL.  Life was about as perfect as can be for an 18  year old, and we were dreamers; nothing could go wrong – or so I thought.  Only 3 months later did reality finally hit me.   The love of my life died suddenly and my world came crashing down.  I lost my music scholarship, and stopped attending college.   The pain seems like a dream today, but I understand now – what a miracle it was that I survived.  I began working at the first job I found hoping I would save up enough money to return to school within 1-2 years.  I dated, but I never truly loved again.

6 years ago I found myself falling in love again.   Truly falling in love.  Butterflies in the stomach, head over heels kind of love.  He is my best friend, the one that thinks the same thoughts at the same time, makes the same jokes about something we see, understands me more than anyone else in this world.

I know I am lucky to have found 2 great loves of my life.  I didn’t become the next great composer of my generation as planned.  But, I found love. Nothing else seems to matter now.  Afterall, in the end… Love is all you need.

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SugarKane Gumbo