Growing up and Learning To Balance

By ShayLa Blake

As kids, adults would tell us that we could be anything we wanted. They encouraged us and cheered for us when we rambled on about wanting to be doctors, actors and astronauts— all at the same time. At some point, however, the narrative changed and what was a meaningless question became real and they seriously wanted us to think about our future. For most of us, this happens around the end of middle school and the beginning of high school and never really gets answered until we get to our senior years or even college for some people. For the people who lean to the creative side of life, deciding what you want to be is a power struggle between logic and passion because the arts isn’t always a lucrative choice, however, it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Growing up takes a lot of learning, and something we all have to learn is what it means to find balance. One person who has mastered the art of finding balance is Kai Neuberger.

Neuberger has an affinity for English and writing, and this has propelled her towards a career as an English teacher, which she plans to study for in college at the Colorado State University. Like most talented, artistic people, she is not good at only one thing. Neuberger took her love of writing and poetry and used it to fuel her music. She is even the lead singer of the band Skeleton Crew alongside her friends. Most people would think that with her impending graduation, she would be stuck picking between the two before she goes off to college, this is not the case. When I sat down and spoke with her, she explained how she planned on doing both for as long as she could. She is going to school to study english so she doesn’t plan on giving up writing anytime soon and if she's going to write poems why not continue her music. 

Photo taken by ShayLa Blake

Neuberger found her balance by actually using her writing as her music. She showed me the first song she ever wrote, which started out as a poem she wrote about her life. She plans on continuing to use poetry and writing as her inspiration in music in college alongside her fellow bandmates who all plan on attending the Colorado State University as well. While Neuberger studies English. she will continue writing songs which she might even produce with her older brother who is currently in school studying to become a music producer. 

Like most people, Neuberger doesn’t just have one passion, she's a lover of the arts and she likes to express it in different modes. We can all look at her as an example when choosing which path we want to go on in life, because it doesn’t have to be just one. For Neuberger, it was finding her love for writing and sharing it between two hobbies, for others it might be choosing between two sports or two sciences. Whatever it is it's important to find balance between the two so you don’t have to give up the things you love.