thoughts on momentum 2012.

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to spend Wednesday September 5th-Sunday September 9th in Orlando at the Yacht and Beach Club for a music conference called Momentum. It's a gathering of radio people and record labels from the Christian music industry. I was able to get a super cheap ticket for the whole event as a college student, along with a free ticket to Night of Joy both nights thanks to my friend Jen. The whole entire weekend was a complete steal, so how could I not go?

My whole reason for going in the first place was to meet people and hopefully make connections. I realize that getting into the music business does have something to do with the education that you have, but the connections that you make along the way are just as, if not more, important than your education. So, off I went to momentum with no real expectations...

Jen didn't really tell me much about what to expect from the weekend, so I really had no idea what I was stepping into. But I suddenly realized that I had stepped into the right place when Steven Curtis Chapman walked into the lobby of the convention center and I turned to Jen and said, "Jen, that's Steven Curtis Chapman right there. For real?" After a minor inward freak out, I realized that this was how the rest of the weekend was going to go, and I accepted it. That was when I came up with the saying "My life is so strange..." to describe the entire weekend.

There were a number of crazy opportunities to meet people from all over the place, and to take in an insanely large amount of music. Like on Wednesday night, for instance, when there were little stripped down acoustic sets put on by Dara Maclean, Jason Castro, and For King and Country in a suite on the top floor of the beach club, or chatting with Andrew Peterson who introduced me to Steve Ford, who offered me an internship at Centricity Music after only chatting for 15 minutes. Or riding in an elevator with Jason Castro, his guitar, and his baby's stroller one night, and riding in an elevator with Matthew West the next afternoon. Or passing Amy Grant as you're running late for Night of Joy and exchanging an extremely awkward "hey".

Seriously...My life is so strange. I'm happy for the strange, but I'm even more happy that the Lord is leading me down this path, and that he keeps reigniting the passion within my soul for the music industry. I'm so grateful for the reminders that I receive on a weekly basis that I am doing the right thing with my life. So grateful...