08/15/2026
Today I had coffee with Zoey.
She has been a student of mine since before Centrally Rooted had a physical home — all the way back around 2019. This first photo is from five years ago, not when our story began, but simply the earliest photo I could find of the two of us.
And now, somehow, she’s off to college on Sunday. ❤️
And you know what we talked about over coffee?
Not music.
We didn’t talk about performances or songs or all the things she has accomplished over the years.
We talked about life.
We talked about the hard things she has walked through, the resilience she has discovered in herself, and the incredible tools she carries with her into this next chapter. We talked about who she is becoming. And I reminded her that no matter where life takes her, my door is always open.
Sitting across from her, I was reminded again of what we are really creating here.
Yes, we teach music. We set goals. We practice and perform. We visualize. We reflect.
But underneath all of that, we are creating spaces where young people can discover who they are.
Week after week, we get to cheer them on. We empathize with them through hard seasons. We celebrate their growth. We remind them that they are capable. That they belong. That their dreams are worth pursuing.
That they are enough here - exactly as they are.
And then, if we are lucky, one day we get to sit across from them at a coffee shop years later and realize that the lessons were never only about music.
They were about helping create confident, resilient humans who know they are worthy of whatever path they choose.
Zoey, what a gift it has been to walk alongside you for all these years. I am so incredibly proud of you and so excited to see where you go from here.
And to our Centrally Rooted community: this is what we create together.
This is the work.
And I am so grateful we get to do it.
