The little red needle sent a tick ringing through the air. A perfect, relaxing, slow 60 beats per minute. I forced my feet to tap along and sent a glance at the clock. Not fast enough. I tapped out eighth notes, then triplets, sixteenth, thirty-seconds, sixty-fourths. I lost all sense of tempo, resigning myself to shaking my leg wildly. My hands scratched a similar beat into the armrests of the waiting room. I frantically vibrated in my seat, causing the stiff fabric and unstable framework of the chair to squeak. Other patrons glared my way, their own hands nervously ringing. My lungs started to join the frenzy.
A hand rested on my knee. I stopped moving, centering myself on the soothing circles my mother wore into my knee. I tore my gaze away from the clock and focused instead on the painting opposing me. A calm beach scene. It wasn’t very calming; all it did was remind me of our family vacation to Florida three years ago. It reminded me of a time before this. Before the fevers and the fainting. Before the late-night hospital visits. Before everything went wrong
The doors opened and dozens of eyes snapped towards it. I stared at the faux waves, trying to time travel via pure will. I could almost feel the sun warm my face.
“Mrs. Brooks? I’m sorry...” I closed my eyes, letting soft waves drown out everything around me.
The Power of Yet
Halfway through my freshman year of high school, our band director wrote "The Power of Yet" in large blue letters on the front whiteboard. It was met with laughter and within a day, the phrase was defaced with various jokes and gimmicks until the original letters were unrecognizable. With the persistence and patience only a high school teacher could have, the band director sighed and fixed it every time.
It was almost an entire week before he got around to explaining what it meant. "The Poo of Yeti" as it now read applied to a difficult piece in our set. Just thinking about it gave freshman flute me a headache with its fast tempo and neverending triplets.
"I know this piece is hard," he said with a calm cadence. "And many of you are saying, "We'll never get this" and we won't." Confused whispers ensued.
"Not yet."
I don't remember if we played that song well or if we never got past garbled garbage. What I do remember is seeing those letters sprawled across the board and the intense look in his eyes. At that moment, I didn't imagine those four words having such a profound impact on my mentality, but they did.
It wasn't a sudden shift; I didn't notice it until months later. But every time I came across a hard task, a difficult math problem, a lack of artistic ability, a gap in skill, any moment where I told myself I couldn't, a small part of my mind echoed his words.
"Not yet."
So I kept practicing, kept studying, kept at it. I drew every day and kept getting better. I practiced shots and drills and became starting line-up in varsity. I finally took my instrument home to practice and soon became first chair. I took harder classes and studied even harder. I became the person I always wanted to be all because I realized I wouldn't get there unless I tried.
You're not the best you can be...not yet.
Wisconsin (and a bit of Minnesota
I'm from a very unique area right on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin so our slang and accents are a strong mix of both, so this won't be an entirely accurate depiction of Wisconsinite slang. Side note: it's Wah-scon-sin not Wisss-con-sin. Y'all sound like snakes trying to pronounce our state.
Y'know- Real simple additive to the beginning and end of phrases. Like "dontcha know" except shorter. I hear (and say) it dozens of times a day.
Ex: "Y'know, dee other day I heard on dah radio Rogers ain't doin so well."
Cook up some brats- Don't know how widespread this is, but my dad says is every weekend. Brats are sausage hotdogs basically and are often cook in boiling pots of beer or grilled.
Ex: "Ah, Imma go cook up some brats for lunch gotta Leine' to spare?"
Up North- This means literally anywhere in Minnesota, a cabin somewhere, or any wooden area. Unless its really far south, direction doesn't matter.
Ex: "Next weekend I'm goin' up north fishin' to dah cabin."
A Spotted Cow- The best beer ever, but it's only sold in Wisconsin and illegal to sell anywhere else.
Ex: "Family's comin' down from up north for Christmas, better stock up on Spotted Cow."
Dells- A random town in Central Wisconsin called "Wisconsin Dells" that has an insane amount of waterparks, theme parks and tourist traps. Despite being the waterpark capital of the world and having some of the largest attractions in the world, very few people know about it.
Ex: "Kids gotta three day weekend, y'know, so we goin' down to da Dells."