First Person

I look forward to getting my BYU Magazine in the mail every season. I always read the whole thing cover to cover. Sometimes this turns out to be a really interesting process. Once I knew four people in the magazine. The end of the magazine (which I always read last) is a real treat because that is where the First Person section is. For this section, BYU Magazine comes up with topics and asks their readers to send in their stories. Most of them are pretty funny. A couple months ago I wrote my very own First Person and submitted it to BYU Magazine. I awaited the next issue eagerly, but, alas, they didn't publish my blurb. I guess they didn't realize that I have been waiting for years for a topic to which I could actually respond. Anyway, they had asked their readers to write about music at BYU which I know is something that would garner A LOT of responses. Still, I think my little story is pretty funny, and I am going to post it here because I can.

Songwriters
JoLee Gillespie Stephens (BA ’01, MA ’04)
Overland Park, Kansas

My roommate Nicole and I were on BYU’s Track and Cross Country teams. During our last training camp our coach decided that one of the week’s activities would be a talent show. (Though, if truth be told, it was actually our idea.) Now, this was not just any talent show; it was a mandatory talent show, and anyone who didn’t prepare a talent beforehand had to sing their high school’s fight song. Nicole and I, however, were prepared. We sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and a combination of “Home on the Range” and “My Home’s in Montana.” We had such a great time practicing our songs, and we were so well received, that throughout the coming semester we continued to teach each other more songs. We specialized in songs with two intertwining melodies. As the semester progressed we had learned quite a few numbers, and one day we started talking about how funny it would be if we recorded all these silly songs and gave them to our families and friends for Christmas. One of the guys in the ward heard our conversation and offered to let us use the recording software on his computer. Our CD “Sing Along with JoLee and Nicole” included highlights such as “This Land is Your Land” and “Horsey, Horsey.” The album even included an original number written for the neglected (when it comes to songs) Thanksgiving holiday, “Oh, What Are We Thankful For.” Our families and friends were thrilled, and after that Nicole and I could proudly claim, “Oh, yeah we’re songwriters…we have an album.”