Why Andrea Bocelli is one of my role models.

     I'm a sucker for inspiring stories about individuals facing tremendous obstacles in pursuit of dreams or goals. Even if they lost the battle, alla the 300 Spartans, just the fact that they didn't run, didn't retreat gives me hope and inspires me to be more than I am, to face my battles with the same courage.
     Andrea Bocelli was declared legally blind as a child. He couldn't read music, but he could hear it, and what's more..he felt it. It was his passion and goal. Over the years his love of music, combined with his perseverance and his refusal to give up on himself, led him on a path that would take him to the greatest concert halls of the world, to the recording studio with some of the world's top producers and recording artists, and ultimately to the top of the sales charts. It just boggles my mind how a blind man was able to accomplish all this. Not only that, but he touched the hearts of millions of people (including me) through the beauty of his music and his story.
     Being a musician, Bocelli's example holds special meaning for me. I know the road ahead--not only in music, but in anything I choose to pursue--will have its hard times and moments where I hit rock bottom and begin to doubt myself. It's at these times that I can turn on a Bocelli song and everything fades away. All the problems and obstacles and things that I thought were insurmountable begin to look smaller. They'll still be there when I take my headphones off, but for that moment, I am empowered by the indescribable beauty that I find in music and in the world. It's amazing how one person and the team behind him can have such an impact on a college kid on the other side of the world. What I would give if  I could do the same.