A Typical Day (Year 2018) and 16 More Songs To Go…
It’s the year January of 2018.
I wake up at 5:30 am. I hit the snooze button, and go right back to sleep.
The alarm goes off again, and now it’s 6:03 am. I HAVE to get up.
I hop out of bed, throw my work clothes on, look outside, and then see nothing but snow.
Now I’m feeling some type of way…so I put on extra layers of clothing and a coat.
I head outside, it’s in the single digits temperature-wise. I hop in my car, I turn it on (which was a very slow start by the way), and I
proceed to drive 25 minutes to work slipping and sliding everywhere. I’m already seeing cars flipped over, cars pulled to the side,
cars stuck in a ditch, etc. So I’m cautious.
I finally arrived to work, late, possibly facing termination at this point due to the point system adding up. I’m working alone until 10
am (by this time, it’s 6:40ish), and it seems like I already got plenty to do. I look at my back aisle and see 4 pallets I need to break
down; all tile, hardwood, vinyl, laminate, etc type flooring. Heavy stuff basically.
I get my morning paperwork and got some inventory counts I need to correct, along with finding a smaller lost product where I
have no idea is.
The back end of receiving calls me up on the store’s phone saying I need to hurry up and pick out this flooring order for them.
Fast forward 10 minutes, I get a customer call yelling at me that their shipment is late, so I reason with him and promise to keep
tabs and gripe at the shipping delivery person in charge via email (which turns into an all-day affair, I didn’t mind though because I
actually liked this customer. He big upped me plenty of times).
And then, 30-40 minutes later, while I’m trying to sort out all of the above, I get another customer (contractor) who wants a certain
amount of carpet and padding cut, which takes a decent amount of time,
And another customer (contractor or so) 10 minutes later needed a vinyl flooring cut.
All this transpires within the first 2 hours. And when it becomes 9:50 am, I’m still breaking down my last pallet. I didn’t even bother
getting to the paperwork, and the back-end recieving had to come up and pick up the order themselves.
10:00 am hits, and my other co-worker arrives. I give him the phone and radio (for communication with other departments in the
store), and then I head up to the manager’s sales meeting, which lasts 45 minutes to an hour.
I get out of that, head back to my department (flooring), and then help my coworker finish the last pallet. By this time, it’s 11:15
am. I then proceed to handle the paperwork I got from this morning. The deadline to turn it in was 10 am, so I’m already late on it.
Fast forward to 12 pm, my boss comes in, and looking at how I went about things, he’s not happy, at all actually. I told him I was
late…he ripped me a new one. I told him the paperwork wasn’t done…he ripped me another one. He sees there’s still a pallet on
the floor…at this point, it feels like he rippin through my soul.
He’s the manager and I’m his assistant. He wants things done in a certain way and by a certain time. I couldn’t blame him, he was
holding me accountable for my position. It’s actually funny, he was teaching me real-life lessons at the time that I would apply
later, but I wouldn’t notice it until way later on. That’s a story for another day though.
Fast forward to 4 pm, and I finally get off work. I was supposed to be off at 1.
I run home, which was 25 minutes, and I eat some food. But I can’t eat long, I got a 3-hour studio session I booked at 7 pm, so I
spend the next hour fixing lyrics, rehearsing, and coming up with new melodies in my head. I travel to the studio session, lay
something out, experiment, and then head home. Another 25-minute drive.
By this point, it’s 10:30 pm, and I still gotta post promotional stuff on social media. I do that and go to sleep.
If you made it this far, I congratulate you. I know this was a boring read, but THIS WAS my typical day back in 2018. Nothing
flashy, nothing fancy, nothing exciting. I can count on one hand how many times I actually went out with friends.
I did leave out some parts, however, such as replacing studio time with the occasional show performance or open mic, or the
occasional gaming session…but this was my life for nearly a whole year. May 2017 – May 2018, until I got a second job and it
became even more strict. It was the “Typical Day” for me.
The point of what I’m saying is this; sometimes we all need to make a sacrifice for what we truly want.
Let me be completely, 100, transparent here. If it wasn’t for that job, my first EP “The Proelium” would’ve never come to life. The
job paid me decently, and without it, I would’ve never had the “funding” to make the project and my other singles. I would take
vacation days off just to promote songs and hit the studio, and that would be it.
Fast forward to 2019, when I had a balance of 3 jobs at this point, I would save nickels and quarters paying for my now in-house
studio. This took me a whole year, and I would work up to 70 hours a week paying for a decent amount of equipment, which was
fairly expensive at the time (between the Neumann TLM 102 and Ableton Push 2, it was $1800…only 2 items), but thankfully, it
was manageable. I’m still super thankful and grateful to those who helped me invest in it because it’s still in use today.
Now, it seems things have changed for the better. I’m still nowhere near where I want to be, but it’s close. Sometimes the initial
upfront sacrifice is needed for the long-term game, and I abide by that.
So whatever you’re trying to do, keep on going.
Sure, the sacrifices now are going to suck, believe me, I’ve been there (still am
actually). But on the other end, it will be worth it. I am a firm believer in that.
I only hope this insight can help you.
We only have 16 more songs to finish out this year. So let’s finish strong, together.
Stay up
Always.
LeeSon Bryce
And as for the song “A Typical Day (Year 2018)”
It was released today, Sept. 30, 2022.
Here’s the link to the song; https://lnk.to/atdlsb
Let’s get it!
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