How Buying a Twenty-Dollar Ukulele Helped my Corona Anxiety

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So, for the last couple years, my mom has been finishing her master’s degree on an online program. I’m extremely proud of her and grateful that I have a tremendously strong, caring, and kind mother in my life. Towards the start of April, she had given me a $20 Walmart certificate to pay me back for all the assistance I had given her on formatting Word docs, “peer” editing, etc.… It was more like son editing.

I had been in turmoil over what to buy, but then, I stumbled across a ‘Best Things to

Buy from Walmart Under-$20’ list. Of course, I didn’t actually get anything from that selection, but it definitely got me thinking. Around the middle of the month, circa April 17th, I spotted a beautiful coal-black ukulele. I pressed the confirm order button immediately, but it wasn’t until April 30th that the Glarry© Hawaiian Guitar would arrive. I started playing and found that the strumming kind of came naturally to me. Of course, I had no idea what “chucking” was until I watched a YouTube tutorial.

[“chucking”] (noun) - (sometimes called chunking or just palm muting) is a strumming hand technique that mutes the strings before strumming them to give a percussive sound.

And chuck I did!

The first song I learned was ‘Let her Go’ by Passenger, and surprisingly to me, it sounded like the real thing on acoustic! I was so astonished by how this tiny instrument could carry so much soul and such a deep, polished tone. Playing this ukulele felt like my heart and mind were coming together to create music that would go out into the world. It felt like I had control over something, and even though it’s quite a tiny instrument, it brought me a great amount of joy.

Strumming seems straightforward at first. I was originally using my index finger and my thumb, tightening them up to pluck with more pressure (and getting more sound). However, chucking brought a whole new element to my playing, and it finally had that rhythm and warmth that I had wanted all along. It felt like I was carrying the song on my shoulders, incorporating both percussion and sparkly chords into my arrangement. It truly amazed me, and that ukulele is one of the things that inspired me to start this blog. The prospect of bringing somebody else value through strumming a song or writing an article is one that strikes me as very worthwhile.

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Watching the news almost became a chore for my family. You don’t want to see all the horrible things happening- it seems like almost every day- but it feels like a ‘necessary evil’, especially when so much of our decisions and emotional stability are based on fresh information. Do you stay uninformed and sit with the fear of missing out, or do you stay in the know and carry that weight on your back? Even though this pandemic is really nobody’s fault, I know that a lot of people (me included) feel like they aren’t doing enough. Like if they somehow came up with a new idea or a new vehicle of expression, the puzzle pieces would fit into place and everybody could finally experience a little safety. The mind will not believe anything without proof, and that’s a blessing and a curse in many ways. Rationality is usually a point to fall back on, but with a virus we can’t directly see, it feels like we have to stop every few steps to see just where exactly we are.

Sitting down and putting this instrument on my lap felt like recovering an old drawing from when you were little. It felt like, at a time when purity and stability is very hard to find, that I had discovered a small piece of innocence. A shining light of hope contained in the form of a corner of Hawaiian culture. The fact that it came with a case made me feel like I could actually take it around! Of course, that’s just a feeling that I have; I can’t really set up with a little microphone on the streets of South Florida right now. And that’s completely fine.

I’m sure that there are opportunities right now that haven’t been here for years to come. Maybe if I was still waking up at 5:30 in the morning every single day, I would have gone for the easier and “more practical” option on the list (the TubShroom™ Clog Preventer). If I hadn’t been given the time to slow down and appreciate my life for the peaceful and phenomenal journey that it is, maybe I wouldn’t have found that I am truly trying the best that I can. That’s why I think these circumstances are perfect, in a way. I think we all need this time to sit with our anxieties and discover who the person feeling that way is.

A big part of why playing an instrument gives people a certain sense of satisfaction is because it’s- literally- in their hands. Doing a school assignment or working on something for a corporate job is “productive”, don’t get me wrong, but it’s something that was given to you. Playing a song or creating your own melody is something that you chose to do, and it makes you feel like you’ve taken a step forward. That’s the ultimate goal, because doing the same thing over and over again isn’t going to help anyone. Look not at the numbers of how many assignments you have completed or how much money came in from the last fiscal year, but to how much fulfillment, joy, and happiness came in instead.

When you work on those assignments, when you make an effort to grow your business, do you grow as a person too? Does it make your face light up entering the office (or in today’s terms, ‘Zoom call’), and does it make your chest feel full of gratitude and glory for the present, past, and future?

The reason why I pose these questions is because now we have more time than ever to think about them! We’ve got a virtually unlimited space of time to start checking in with ourselves. It’s like Super Bowl halftime became all the time, and I believe it’s a prime opportunity for us to start doing what we love. I wouldn’t have been able to start this blog without it, and in that way I’m eternally grateful to “SARS-CoV-2”. Although we have hit a few bumps in the road, and I’m sure there are some problems that now we can’t run away from, there is a light at the end of the interstate for all of us. Thank you for reading, and as always, have a wonderful one.