It’s been a fast-paced week to say the least. With meetings after meetings after meetings, massive projects, final exams, and trying to squeeze in smidgens of enjoyment as my energy waned, I can gladly say I gave it my all this week. Rather than cool myself down with mellow tunes as I’ve done in past weeks, I thought I’d humbly celebrate my tenacity through a song that symbolically represents how I felt all week. With a lot of ground to cover many people (including myself sometimes!) resort to panicking and ruing the upcoming hours that they’ll eventually be forced to face. I’ve found that rather than getting lost in anxiety in weeks like this, if you flex your muscles, tighten your grip, disregard the sweat dripping from your forehead, and just go, go go, you can do great things with minimal resources other than your mind and perseverance.

If I told you Trampled by Turtles was from Duluth, Minnesota, you’d probably respond along the lines of “Of course they are.” Come on now friends, don’t be judging books by their covers. The sheer talent displayed during this group’s performance is a thing of pure beauty and uncompromised effort. My dad always told me “the banjo is such a tough instrument; every one of your fingers is constantly in motion,”  and banjo player Dave Carroll wholly emphasizes this lesson with his mesmerizing finger picking abilities. In conjunction with mandolin player Erik Berry and fiddle player Ryan Young, they seem to never stop moving at marathon pace of about 240 beats per minute. Even singer Dave Simonett looks like he could pass out at any moment from lack of oxygen! That doesn’t matter to them, and it shouldn’t matter to you either, because it’s their passion that drives them, not their lack of energy.