Diary of a Peach

30 Day Writing Challenge - Day 4

Hi everyone! So sorry I was unable to update yesterday, I was out of town all day, and when I got home a major storm hit my valley hard and knocked out the entire valleys power for a while (which is incredibly rare... also my family jinxed the whole thing into happening which I will talk about later today)

But unfortunately due to a power outage and a low phone battery, I could not do any updates yesterday. I will indeed be making up for it by posting twice (3 times actually) today!

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Day 4 - Write about someone who inspires you

I know this one is a little too easy. Aviators, right?

Here's the thing though. Lets be real here, I talk Aviators a lot. Today I want to talk about someone else who has made just as big of an impact on my life as Avi. Someone who has been my role model and inspiration for about 5 years now. Someone quite... amazing.

This person is Nicole Croteau.

Nicole Croteau is a 26 year old musician currently residing in Franklin, Tennessee. This woman was my first true inspiration.

I first found her in 2012-2013 when I began expanding my Christian Music interests (When I say this I mean I started listening to another Christian RadioStation that wasnt K-Love) and Im so glad I did.

One day when my sister was home visiting we had to go to the store to get something for my mom. On our way home she put on Air1 despite me wanting to listen to K-Love instead. As we are driving I hear this really fantastic upbeat song that I immidiatly fell in love with. The very second we got home I ran to my computer and searched the Air1 site to see what song it was and by who.

Thats song was NY2LA by Press Play.

After hearing that song I began looking up and listening to their previous albums entitled Life Is Beautiful, NY2LA, and World Anthem (my personal favorite).

Within a month they became my favorite band and I practically worshipped them.

Then one day as Im listening to my new favorite radio station, Air1, I hear a new song announced right before it starts playing and to my surprise this new song is by none other than Press Play.

This new song was #LITO

(That stands for Love In The Open for all you uncultured sack of onions who didn't know)

I was immediately in love but could tell something, or rather, someone was different.

The female vocalist was not the same as the previous albums, no. This girl was new.

I did my research and to my dismay Sada K. Jackson (the previous female vocalist along with Paige Adkins) had left the band and been replaced by some chick named Nicole Croteau.

I was not a happy fruit.

I did not like change. (I still dont but its changed *lol* and Im much more reasonable about it)

But needless to say back then I didn't want to accept her into the band. MY band. She was new and not what I knew.

Then came my 13th birthday in which, I got an iPhone and an Instagram too.

You may be wondering how that's important to the story? Well, First thing was first, as I got instagram I immidiatly followed the official IG of Press Play along with all their members, and that included Nicole Croteau (even though I was still unsure about her).

I followed her and looked through her posts and I could tell just then, she seemed like a really nice person. Maybe I should've been more open to accepting her I thought.

After about a week of following her and really warming up to her, I noticed that she had released an album in 2012 entitled "Anchors and Silhouettes".

I decided to give it a listen.

Im so glad I did. I loved ever song on that album. Seriously, even to this day there is not one song there that I do not like.

After I heard this she quickly became my favorite musician. I even drew hew a little fanart the next month (which got me a shoutout and repost that Im still happy with)

As the years went on I grew to love her more and more, as well as look up to her!

Nicole is an amazingly talented person. Her voice is the voice of gods. Seriously its on Avi's level, hell even Josh Grobans level probably. Its gorgeous!

She does very well writing her own songs too! Her lyrics can range from fun, to sweet, to deep. Its fantastic! Her sound is quite amazing too! Ive always genuinely enjoyed the instrumentals in her music.

For all these reasons and more, Nicole has continuously inspired me over these 5 years. It's because of her I wanted to take up guitar, its because of her I wanted to actually start doing covers, hell its because of her I want to move to Franklin/Nashville of all places!

She has inspired me to do so much with my life, and so much of my life now exists because of her influence.

Even her family has been an incredible influence on me. Her gorgeous and talented sister one day posted a cover of her singing "Hurt" on youtube and still to this day its one of my favorite covers of all time (and only encouraged me to start doing covers even more), and her mom is such a sweet and kind lady who was always posting nice little bible verses and good quotes and more often than not Id see them when I really needed them.

I owe a lot of who I am today to Nicole. I will always love and support her and be her biggest fan.

Thank you Nicole for making such a huge impact on my life, and still continuing to inspire me to this day ❤️