1. I won the St. Jude Bike-A-Thon at Ripley Elementary School in the spring of 1991. WHAT??? Rachel won an athletic event? YES MA’AM, I sure did!

It was in the spring of my 3^rd grade year (here at the very school I teach at these days) and I had just gotten a brand new ten-speed bicycle for my 9^th birthday in March. We took sponsors who pledged a certain about of cents per mile… or per lap or something.. and off we went.

I had on some black bike shorts with big pink roses on them, that my mother had MADE for me, and a light pink tee shirt that I’m pretty sure came from Reelfoot Lake somewhere. I’m not sure how many kids showed up in front of the school that morning with bicycles, but it was a BUNCH. We all lined up like we were in the Tour de France, someone said GO, and off we went like it was some kind of race. I do remember being nervous that I was going to run over someone since all these kids were riding together so closely. I also remember a little boy riding in and out of other kids calling us all the “B” word… and I thought.. he has an ITCH?? WHAT???

I ended up making 59 laps around the school which they told me equaled 29 miles, so by the time we were finished I had ridden the longest length and WON! Ha! I think they ended up giving me a St. Jude tee shirt and a tote bag… and some other things..  but I swear I bragged on that until I went to high school.

• I have probably the most sensitive tongue ever known to mankind. I’ve always been sensitive to spicy foods, but in the fall of 2014 I took an anti-biotic drug that gave me thrush in my mouth which was a horrible experience to add to an already CRAP year that I was having, and ever since then, my tongue has just not been the same!

My tolerance for spiciness is almost zero, if not into the negative integers of spiciness. Too much salt burns my tongue!! Ketchup burns my tongue! Mustard ESPECIALLY burns my tongue! My husband has to take special care to not season the steaks he grills for me, I can’t eat pepperoni pizza, and I always have to mind the number of fruity drinks I have on vacation… because the acid in fruits BURN MY TONGUE! It’s kind of a hassle for a foodie….

• Most of my pianist friends started playing when they were 4 or 5 years old, but I didn’t start playing until I was 13. I knew when I was 6 or 7 that I wanted to play the piano, but my parents just didn’t believe me, or something.. I learned to play the clarinet in sixth grade band and when I was in 7^th grade my younger sister began voice lessons. So then the next year when I was in 8^th grade, and had had two years of school band, they finally let me begin piano lessons. I was already pretty proficient at reading music, well… the treble clef at least, and so it just went fast for me. I began lessons in August of 1995 and in May of 1996 I played for my first church service. In January of 1997 I took over as the pianist, and by my junior year of high school I was playing for two different churches.

So when people ask me, “What’s the best age to start piano lessons?” I always say… eh… really doesn’t matter. The older the child, the better… and they will only really do it if they really want to.. you can’t force them to love it.

• I was an extremely shy kid… would you have guessed that? On my Facebook page it says “Once upon a time I was a shy little girl, then I learned to make music and I found my big voice.” It’s true. Being in the band brought me all the way out of my shell so much so that my junior and senior years at Ripley High School I was the drum major for the marching band. Gosh, what a great time THAT was.

I can’t think of being the drum major without thinking about the fall of 1999 when the Ripley Tiger Marching Band won the small division at the University of Memphis Marching Competition. As part of winning, we won the chance to perform at a U of M game the following month. It was a very bright, clear, and crisp Saturday afternoon down in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl Stadium. We marched across the field to take our place for the pregame show. The announcer said, “Field Commander Rachel Young, is your band ready?” I did my salute and then Matt (aka Maurice the Tiger, the school mascot) and I ran arm in arm across the field and I hopped up on the drum major podium. The show was going great… but my favorite memory of that day was when I was conducting the band and I suddenly look down at my feet and saw a camera man with his lens pointed up towards me. I then glanced over at the Jumbo-tron… and there I was… my face two stories tall!!! Magic!

Well what we DIDN’T know that afternoon was that the game was being televised on ESPN and somehow we had gotten started a minute or so late on the pregame show. As we were still on the field wrapping up “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” suddenly the VERY loud cannons went off, the pyro-technics blasted, and the University of Memphis football team came rushing onto the field and right through our band show! Scared the hell out of all of us! Some of the football players knocked color guard members, along with their flags to the ground, and they all congregated doing their jumping up and down thing right in our pit and below my drum major stand. I was literally scared to death that they were going to knock my stand over with me on it!

Every time I hear the 50^th verse of “American Pie” where it goes “ ‘cause the players tried to take the field, the marching band refused to yield..” it takes me right back to my very last performance with the RHS marching band that November day in 1999!

• I’m always cold. At Eli’s spring baseball games, if it’s about 72 or below, I’m freezing. I’m wrapped up in blankets with scarves, a hat, and a hoodie on… possibly with gloves on too. I’m cold when the sun goes down in the summertime. I always have to have a jacket in restaurants because I’m shivering. I keep my classroom about 75-76 degrees on most days.., and for some reason after about 9:00 pm just sitting in my den, my body temp will just drop and you’ll find me wrapped up in blankets. Most nights when I shower I turn on the heater in the bedroom on 86 so its toasty in there when I get ready to go to bed… irritates the mess out of my husband… but I’m COLD! Hahah.. I take iron supplements!!! (Sometimes….)