As a teenager I started a rock band with some of my friends.
This being Oregon, of course we focused on grunge rock.
It’s hard to say if we were bad, or just not appreciated in our small town. At the time, we thought we were pretty good, so we decided to leave town and move someplace bigger. The nearest town of any size was Eugene, so we moved there with a plan to play some gigs, put together some money, and then move to the much-bigger city of Portland. Things never played out like that, and we never actually left Eugene, Oregon, which remains my home to this very day! When we first got here I took a part time job in one of the many cannabis dispensaries in Eugene, as a way to pay the bills. Finding a gig playing music in Eugene is not difficult, with all the bars and places to go at night. Some of the Euegene cannabis dispensaries even host live music sometimes, which we took advantage of a few times. That said, if you want to get paid real money to play music, then Eugene is not a great place to start your career. After a few months the other members of the band moved to Portland, but I liked my cannabis dispensary job, so I stayed put in Eugene. I still play music, mostly on open mic nights at the cannabis dispensary where I still work. Eugene is a nice place to live, and great place to get your cannabis, but not a great place to rock.