I get a Little Help from my Friends

Life gets busy and overwhelming sometimes. It gets to the point where you want to throw in the towel and say, “I’m done! That’s it! I can’t do this anymore!” You have 1,042 things to do and they’re all eating away at you, making you more stressed out and even more irritable than you were before.

That’s why we have friends!

I was talking to my mom the other day about how thankful I am for the friends in my life and all the great people I have. They help me not only get through the day sometimes, but they support me with my music and reaching my goals. I wonder how they put up with me... or WHY… but I don’t think too hard about it because, they’re here for me, no questions asked.

I love that.

I know for an absolute fact that I’m the craziest, weirdest, strangest person ever sometimes… but my friends put up with that, and that’s pretty neat. Without these people I would be utterly insane, bonkers, derailed. With music being my primary outlet for expressing my feelings, my friends are my other source for letting my emotions run free like wild horses. (cue rolling stones song going through your head right now.)  I can tell them my secrets, where as if I wrote a song about those same secrets I might be taken to some sort of specialist. My brain works in mysterious ways, I tell you. Not even I understand it sometimes. The mechanics of my thoughts are to be understood by God alone, and it should stay like that.

Anyways, I truly am one blessed individual to be able to have these close knit friends that I consider like family. I’m an only child, so it does get lonely to an extent sometimes, but my parents have always been there to keep me entertained. I think I’m extremely lucky to be able to call my mom my best friend, and she calls me hers. God gave my mom me to be there for her, to talk to her, and to be a friend to her, and I take that very seriously. I would do ANYTHING for my mom… just like I would do anything for any of my other friends. She means the world to me and I love being there for her. My favorite thing on this planet is when we sit and talk for hours about deep, life stuff. Like, people that are put in our lives to teach us patience, and what the world would be like without certain things, or how certain relationships happen only to teach us a lesson, not to stay with us for the rest of our lives. She’s a genius sometimes, I swear. I go to her with any of my troubles and I walk away with a new understanding. Sure, I get mad at my mom but who doesn’t. She is the true rock in my life and I have absolutely no clue on God’s green earth what I would do without her. I’d be a hopeless fool.

Also, whenever people tell me, especially people younger than me, that their parents are annoying them or making them mad about something, I say that I understand, but to not get upset with them. Take what they have to say and do what they tell you to do. Being in college now, I miss my parents so much, and I look back and appreciate all the things they told me and taught me. I was angry with them, yes, and I still do get aggravated with them, but I’m thankful for the way I was raised. I’m strong and independent because of them. They taught me to stand up for myself and to be firm in my beliefs. They showed me how to not be intimidated by others, and that giving into peer pressure won’t make you fit in, it will only make you like everyone else, which is something you don’t want to be. Standing out in the crowd is strangely satisfying. Because you are different, people want to know who you are. If you look like everyone else in the crown and do what they crowd does, no one cares who you are or what your name is. You’re just a person in a crowd. Plain and simple.

When I was younger I always had the idea set in my head that my parents were way too strict. While sometimes I still agree it would have been nice to let the reigns looser a few times, I’m thankful I wasn’t able to do whatever I pleased. Not like I would have six tattoos or a drinking problem or anything, but I would have gotten into a lot more dumber stuff than I had if I didn’t have them watching over me. Nothing good happens past like, 11pm in this town, so I get where they were coming from. They wanted to keep me safe and protect me from the world and it’s tiny hidden evils.

Speaking of my mom though, it’s her birthday tomorrow and I want to do something awesome for her but I have no idea what to do. I could write her a song but, I’ve done that already. Or I could write a poem, but I’ve done that already too. I’ve made her larger than life cards and drawn and painted her many pictures, so what’s left?! I was thinking plane tickets to Nashville… that way the whole family can reap the benefits of my generous gift (insert cool sunglass emoji here). I think I’d be considered the best daughter ever… just saying.

Anyways, friends are beautiful people that we must never take advantage of. I always try my absolute hardest to keep in close contact with my friends, and sometimes I fail at this, but the ones that forgive me, or understand that I have a busy lifestyle, are the ones worth keeping around. I tend to do this thing where I fall off the face of the earth and I forget to text people back and call them and email them, but that’s just me. It’s who I am. I honestly forget EVERYTHING which is awful, I know, but sometimes there’s just nothing I can do about it. When someone gets mad at me for not talking to them for a week I’m honestly hurt by that. I say I’m sorry, because I really am, but then I almost want an apology in return. I realize I haven’t talked to you but you need to realize that I just completely blanked and needed time to myself for a while. It’s normal to want to be solitary for a little while. When people get mad at me for that, it makes me pretty blue to be honest. I get over it though, because I like to live a happy lifestyle. I never hold grudges and forgive always, because if you hold bitterness and bad blood with people, you’re bound to end up unhappy and bliss-less. That’s not cool!

Happiness is key to everything in life. If you are happy, then the people around you are happy. Your mood affects the ones surrounding you. If you’re upset and angry at the world and giving off an attitude to everyone you come in contact with, they all will take your attitude and apply it to themselves and go on with the rest of their day acting like big ol’ cranks, just like you. Don’t do that to people! Smile at everyone, say thank you to everyone, look people in the eye and mean what you say. It will rub off and the world around you will be such a happy place. Not even a rain storm could dull your sunshine. (I sounded lame there, I get it) But I’m trying to prove a point, if you’re happy, I’m happy, your whole life will be happy, and the world will be a happy place. Yay! Sunshine and sprinkles and unicorns and happy stuff…

Ok, enough with sounding like a six year old… I’m going to attempt to tie this whole thing together. It’s like those conversations where you start talking about one thing and end up on something totally different and you look at the other person like what the actual heck were we talking about in the first place…

So, in concluding all my thoughts into one thought; I’m so thankful that I have the relationship with my parents that I do, and am even more blessed to have friends that are like family to me, which in turn make me the happiest person on the planet. Then throw in something about it being my mom’s birthday and me having terrible forgetfulness. There! I think I did it!

I’m actually impressed with myself.

Anyways, I hope you guys are all doing swell and leading good, happy, healthy lives. THIS TIME I SERIOUSLY PROMISE TO KEEP UP WITH MY BLOGS. It’s summer now and all of my time is dedicated to my music and everything associated with this career that I love so much.

Have a wonderful, happy day.

Love you much.

-Madeline

Consistency is Key

Falling behind and trying to catch up is about as easy as trying to spread frozen butter on room temperature bread. Very difficult.

Yet here I am falling the slightest bit more behind on my schoolwork as I attempt to fill you in on the many things that have happened in my life.

First and foremost I would like to make a promise to you. Every single Wednesday night/Thursday morning I will post a new blog. I know some people have told me they missed my writing so this is for you guys. I promise through and through to consistently write and keep log of what I do.

Consistency is key in life. We consistently need food and water to stay alive, we consistently need human interaction or else we would go bonkers, we consistently like to find love or else we would be sad, depressed people. I found that we also need to be consistent in other things too. Although small, we need to always remember to be nice to others, to love the ones that don’t necessarily love us, and take time out of our day to help other people. (I’m actually a profit incase you didn’t know) Anyways, it’s true! I see too many people being rude to each other and blowing people off. It happens to me too, all the time!

So what I’m trying to say here is lets all be consistently good people. Okay? Okay.

Moving along to other things, I recently just competed in the Hard Rock Rising Battle of the Bands competition. It was pretty much AMAZING to say the least. I had outstanding support from my friends at St. Thomas and tons of my family came out to see me and it was overwhelmingly awesome. For the first time I had real fans that I got to interact with (and take a giant selfie with and put it on my snapchat.. how cool). When I was on stage, I finally felt this incredible happiness and sense of belonging that I hadn’t felt in so long. It was truly marvelous. I never wanted to stop, and I probably wouldn’t have stopped it wasn’t for the emcee telling me I had surpassed my time limit… true story. I like to sing guys, and no one can stop me. (unless excessive singing could get me disqualified.. then I will stop)

Anywho, needless to say that experience was off the wall (idk is that what people say.. I feel extremely lame saying that).

SO, on another note.. school at the University of St. Thomas is absolutely amazing and I love it and if anyone is on the fence about attending college.. hop off that fence right now because school is great and it keeps you the “good kind” of busy and you should go. Heck, come to St. Thomas and we can be besties. Just sayin..

Studying is kind of hard though, you have to be disciplined. I am disciplined but to a certain degree. If my roommate is gone and I have to write flashcards for an exam in a couple days, but I see my guitar lookin all sorts of lonely over there in the corner, you bet on Gods green earth I’m going to pick up that guitar and start singing and writing songs. It’s who I am, sorry Philosophy, me studying for your test is not happening today… or at least until my roommate gets back and tells me to shut up.

Speaking of my roommate, I think she is the cutest little thing. She makes me smile. She’s just so “consistently” kind to me and considerate and awesome and I think she deserves best roommate award. And we listen to the same kinds of music and like the same shows on Netflix so seriously… it’s a win win situation like all the time. She’s so cool, she deserves a high five.

Other interesting things going on in my life… lets see. Ooooooo I know: I wrote this cool thing about love and y’all should read it. It’s super deep and awesome but I think you’ll like it. It’s like poetry but nothing rhymes so I’m not really sure what it is. Anyways, here it is… I’ll just leave this here:

Love is so complicated

It burns you, but you like the burning; whereas if you were burned by a fire, the burning would hurt you.

Love hurts you too though.

It can hurt you so bad it brings tears to your eyes and aches to your bones.

Love can build you up just as fast as it can tear you down into a million little pieces.

Love doesn’t make logical sense at all.

On any given day you wouldn’t jump off a bridge into unknown waters, but if someone you loved so deeply asked you jump into the deep with them, you would do it in one second.

Love has no boundaries. No limits. No nothing.

Love is lovely, yet it is hellish and unjust. It fills your entire being and makes you feel like a wonderful dance is going on inside of you for days and days. Then all of a sudden the dance ends, and you miss the feeling of fluttering feet in your stomach and acrobatics in your chest. You miss the smile that would skim your face when the thought of them slowly crept across your mind.

But now you’re left with an empty arena inside. The only thing you can hear is the music that was left on repeat when the dancing was over.

The same songs play over and over and over and over...

Yet you never get tired of them, or annoyed that they never stop. You could never even begin to get angry that the same track plays again and again, because it reminds you of when the dancing was still happening inside of you.

When they touch your skin, you felt the goose bumps crawl all the way up your arm and scatter across your entire self. You felt alive, invigorated.

You felt invincible.

So you took the leap of faith and dove head first into something you didn’t have a clue about.

Love numbs you, so you felt nothing when they took advantage of your body and held you too close and spread you too thin.

You thought you meant something incredibly exceptional to them, so you gave yourself to them with all the trust in the world. You handed your heart to them on a silver platter decorated exquisitely with your trust, patience, and your beautiful love.

But who cares about those things, right?

Who cares about the three most individually important things in human existence?

Without trust we have nothing.

Without love we have nothing.

Without trust we would spite everybody.

Without love, we would look blankly into others blank faces and feel nothing but nothingness.  A planet of dull, lifeless, stupid animals we would be without love.

Yet love always aims to shoot us right where it hurts the most.

And here we are blaming love for all our unfortunate misfortunes, when we should blame the ones who misuse love.

Love is fascinating. Captivating. Magnificent.

Yet we treat it as if it were a rock.

We misuse it so we may use other people.

Why do we take such an exceptional thing and make it into something regarded like dirt?

Because we are selfish and greedy and useless.

If we want people to really love us, we need to realize we are only wanting their bodies to love us.

A human body can only do so much, but if someone loves you with their entire soul, mind, and body?

Now that’s something.

That’s love.

That’s the mark of a miraculous person.

A stupendous person.

Love can be the most extraordinary thing this universe has ever seen.

Love can be blinding, and that is why we mistake it for lust, desire, greed, hunger..

We mistake love for longing and thirst.

Love is none of those things, for love is pure in it’s most graceful state.

Do not mistake it for something wretched and horribly sub-par.

When love comes knocking on your door, asking if you will let it in, let in the dance that will coexist within you for as long as the love burns, you will know when it is true.

You will say yes.

You will love every second that it is within you.

Because love is so complicated.

But it is so wonderful all at the same time.

I hope you read that and thought twice and then said, “woah”. Because that’s what I did once I wrote it and read it over. I freaked out a little because, I’m not really sure where that came from. Sometimes I surprise myself.

Anyways, unfortunately I must get back to studying. I love you all and thank you for your endless support. It means the world to me!

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter (@maddieee_mo) and instagram (@madelineconsoer).

-xoxo Gossip Girl

just kidding….

Love,

Madeline

Lemonade and Life Lessons

When life gives you lemons.. make lemonade.

But what about when life gives you lemons, cucumbers, apples, sixteen books, writers block, and a whole new life in general?

..good question.

I’m back, I know everyone was so worried as to where I had gone. Thank you for your concern, but I was being pulled in 6,000 directions with my CD release, a trip to New York City, and a brand new start at the University of St. Thomas. I am finally settling down for about 5.2 seconds, so I can fill everyone in on the life of Madeline Consoer. 

I went to New York, as I stated above. That was amazing to say the least. There was enough experiences there to last me a life time. But if a lifetime of experiences isn’t enough, I’m now a full time college student and loving all the new people I’m meeting and all the new things I’m being introduced to. 

Before I get ahead of myself though, let us hit the rewind button on life real quick. Let’s see, before I got to New York, something very devastating happened… I contracted writers block.

It’s a very serious disease us song writers would rather do without. Since I had it though, dealing with it was a formality. Everywhere I went I took a journal with me, writing a verse here, a chorus there, but nothing was complete. I would start a song and really love it, but then the words would stop coming to mind and the melody would fade from my brain, and I would get upset, and angry, and I’d quit everything I was doing and go work out or something like that, just to take my mind off of things. Without my songwriting going smoothly, my life is so ho-hum. I feel so average, (not that average is a bad thing) I just know I am not destined to be average. 

Life carried on though, I released my EP on iTunes, amazon, spotify, pretty much every single music site there is, and also had a release party. (this is suppose to spark this little inkling inside of you who are reading this to go get my album on iTunes, just saying.) The release party was amazing to say the least, seeing as it was also my 19th birthday! I had way too much fun and I wish everyday of my life could be like that! Everyone that came to support me was so kind, I really felt like I was loved and my music was just as appreciated. It made my whole life pretty much. 

Then came the trip to New York City! Wow. If you don’t think that that is one of the coolest cities in America, than you have some blockage or something in your brain. It was absolutely amazing there. The people, the culture, the buildings, the sights, everything blew my mind. Why did I trek all the way to the Big Apple you may ask? Well, to try out for the voice of course! I waited in line for endless amounts of hours, doing nothing but just that, waiting. Waiting is not the easiest thing in the world either, you just stand and look around and tap your foot and twiddle your thumbs and lick your lips and push your hair out of your eyes and spin on your heal and hum songs and stare at random people till they give you dirty looks and maybe do some jumping jacks to keep the blood flowing and possibly break out into the electric slide.. just kidding about that one, but waiting is torturous. Especially when so much is on the line. Especially, when you don’t even get on the show in the first place so all your waiting was virtually pointless. I did not make it on the voice, but I learned a very valuable lesson.. don’t wear really high heals if you’re going to be doing a whole bunch of waiting. And that’s that. (I also learned how to better handle rejection, that’s probably more important actually…)

So after doing all that pretty neat stuff, I started doing more neat stuff, like starting college. I moved all my things into the dorm, said goodbye to my parents (I cried, yes) and then started life on my own. It was scary at first, yes, but now I’m finally getting the hang of it. It takes time to meet people, and it took time for me to realize that people have no idea who I am here, they don’t care who I am or what I’ve done. I’m just another face in the crowd, just another college student. It’s intimidating. All these people looking at me because I am now an unfamiliar face. That doesn’t stop me though. It shouldn’t stop anybody. When no body knows your name or who you are, look at it as if it is a clean slate. No body knows you! You could make up a new name for yourself if you wanted to, because no body knows your real name! Just kidding.. don’t do that. Use it as a platform to build your social standing. Do better than you’ve ever done before. Impress more people than you’ve ever impressed. Meet more people than you’ve ever met. Do new and exciting things, and whatever you do, never look back. This is your life now, your new and exciting life. 

I’ve already taken advantage of this. I’ve met so many cool people, I love it. I’ve made new connections and new friends that I never would have met before. I’ve joined a worship group where we sing praise to Jesus and worship and pray to him every Wednesday night. Also, I joined the band that plays the music. Why not use my talent for the one who gave it to me in the first place? It makes perfect sense to me, doing that just seemed like a more than perfect fit. I joined a rock climbing club that kicks my butt every Monday and Thursday night. But just because all these positive things are happening.. doesn’t mean that everything going on is so holly-jolly.

People are negative, and people are going to hurt you, and you can never avoid it. It’s tough out here in the real world and a part of me wishes I’d have known about more of it before I plunged head-first into it. People are mean, and they don’t care about anything else but the betterment of themselves. I believe some peoples hobbies include putting others down, picking on people who they believe are of lesser value to them, and making others feel terrible about themselves. It’s in their nature, and that’s how life goes. Always look for the positive in these types of people though. Sure it sucks that they’re words are so brutal and their actions are so heartless, but what they supply you with, no one could ever just hand you; thick skin. Treasure who you are. Don’t let anybody make you feel less. Especially because you are never less in the eyes of Jesus. 

This brings me to what I’d like to end with. I wrote a song!! Yes, the writers block has temporarily subsided for the time being, and while I was sitting in my dorm learning how to somewhat play the guitar, I came up with a song too! It’s up on you tube so you should probably watch it. It’s called Wonderful Wonders and it’s this story about, well, pretty much my new life at college. It’s about new beginnings and not worrying about what other people think of you. It’s about being your own person and standing up for what you believe in. I hope that when you take the time to listen to it, you take something out of it also (besides the fact that I look like I just woke up in the video and can’t play the guitar too hot yet). I want you to listen to the words and think about how you’re living your life. Are you simply just trying to fit in with everyone else, or are you actually trying to stand out and do what makes you happy? I hope you do what makes your soul happy and your face shine like it has little sun beams coming out of it. 

You guys are amazing. Sorry I fell behind and didn’t write for a while, but I promise I’ll be here more often now. Love you all!!

God Bless

-Madeline 

I Really, Really Love My Life

As the holiday season is coming to an end, as the New Year approaches, and as the release of my EP is coming up ever so quickly, I’m taking a step back and putting everything into perspective.

2014 has been a whirlwind of crazy, exciting things. I graduated high school, worked my butt off the entire summer, and recorded an EP in November. Eventful, but ever so amazing. Saying I’m thankful is an understatement for sure. I’m overjoyed, overwhelmed, gratified, contented, satisfied.. and I’m running out of adjectives to describe how happy I am to be living this life that God has blessed me with.

God hasn’t only given me things recently, he’s placed many people in my path along the way that have pushed me and made me who I am today. Without them I’d be at college right now, sitting in my dorm, snacking on a bucket of cheese balls. (Ok maybe not, but it’s still a possibility though)

I’ve been singing ever since I could remember, so that means that people have been inspiring me ever since I could remember. I really started focusing on my musical career when I was fourteen years old. I was in eighth grade when I entered a talent competition in my home town. The people that supported me then were just as amazing as they are now. It meant so much to me to come out every Wednesday night and sing for a mere two to three minutes, and people would cheer every time, so loud I could do nothing but smile and say thank you over a billion times. Music isn’t the most “excepted” thing in this town, and it was nice to express what I loved to do, and actually get positive feedback. Sure, there were still the people that didn’t like me. Maybe because I was too young to even be competing, maybe because they thought I was just doing it to show off, or maybe they were just plain jealous. Whatever the reason, they are the ones that pushed me to become better every week. I wanted to make the people that supported me proud, and prove the people that hated me wrong. Because of all these people, I won the competition and gained a new outlook on my career, and for that I am forever grateful.

After that competition, I began working even harder on making my dream come true. Now that I had a clear vision of what I wanted, I could begin to seriously focus on what needed to be done. I started to play gigs at local restaurants and sing the national anthems at my school’s sports games and events. The feedback was amazing, but then came the question that I would always answer with an exuberant yes, but would never want to actually play something like that in public.

“Do you write songs?” countless people would ask.

“Of course I do!” I’d answer, but inside a knot would begin to twist and turn and I’d say something like, “uhm, yeah but I don’t have the music” or, “I forgot the words.” I’m upset at myself for not wanting to play my songs when I was younger, but I feel like I had a perfectly logical reason then. I was fourteen, and to some people a fourteen year old is immature and they don’t have a reasonable outlook on life. I felt the opposite. I felt like I understood what life was, and in all of my songs I poured my feelings into the words and my emotions into the piano, and because of this I was scared to let people hear these songs, because then they would be peering directly inside of my brain. I didn’t like feeling that vulnerability back then. I wanted to fit in, not stand out because I came off as some emotional wreck.

So anyways, I cast my favorite lyrics into a notebook I hid under my bed, and started writing basic, simple songs that I could play for my “fans”. I wrote songs that blabbered on about teenage crushes and heartbreaks that I only read about in back-cover magazine stories. It seemed to be working though, I enjoyed the catchy melodies that I would plunk out, and the people that I played them for seemed to catch on really quickly, memorizing lyrics and requesting my own music whenever I’d play somewhere. I started to really love playing my own songs. A memory I will never forget was when I was at our good family friend’s house and everyone was sitting around the piano listening to me. Lucky, which was one of my songs, was requested by my best friend Natalie, and I started to play it. To my surprise, everyone in the room knew the lyrics, and they sang along throughout the entire song. It was the most amazing thing to have people singing my own song with me. It was like, “hey man, yeah, you understand me too. We’re on the same page, that’s awesome bro, yeah.” It was so cool!

Anyways…. Since these simple songs were sticking with people, simple songs I continued to write. I don’t even think I could count on 12 pairs of hands how many people asked if they could get the songs on iTunes yet. Even though these songs were sitting well with my audience and I, I still had this quiet little longing inside of me to play my more meaningful songs. Yes, I was scared out of my pants, but I knew I had to.

When I was a senior in high school, I decided to try out one of my songs. When I was ten or eleven years old, I wrote a song called “Breathing Underwater”. I have no idea where the inspiration came from at that age, seeing as it’s practically impossible for an eleven year old to experience a love as deep as the one I sang about. Anyways, I was sitting at home with some company that had come over for dinner and my mom had me sing some songs while we waited to eat. I sat behind the piano, and I remember telling them that I had a new song I wanted them to hear. I played Breathing Underwater and after I finished the last notes on the piano, I remember looking up and seeing nothing but smiles. (Contrary to what I thought I was going to be seeing, which was a look of a mix of discontent and horror) In that moment I knew my emotional self would fare well in the public eye, and I could begin to publicly sing my songs. Not entirely though; I mixed the catchy, simple stuff, with the deep emotional stuff, and wrote some more songs. I wrote a couple called “Leaving Scars” and “La La Love”. People loved them, but that little, tiny person inside of me was still quietly screaming that I wanted to play the deeper material that I so reluctantly kept under my mattress.

Then came this last summer, when I worked three jobs and had no free time for friends, or family.

(Hey, the EP wouldn’t be where it was today if I hadn’t worked my arse off) The only people I had were the people I worked with, and luckily they were some of my favorite people I’ve ever met. I’ll admit I lived a pretty sheltered life, in a way, in the past, but this summer my reigns were loosened and I had a little more freedom than I used to. Thank God in heaven I was able to do the things I did, because the experiences led to more songs upon more songs. I sang every Tuesday night at the same resort I waitressed at. Every week a bigger crowd formed and the more fun it became. Interacting with the audience was my favorite thing to do, and making them laugh was so rewarding. I am usually a very shy person, but once I stepped behind that microphone and piano, I completely opened up somehow, and gave it all I had. Those people who came back to watch me week after week, and the people that only saw me once, were absolutely amazing. My co-workers though, that stayed after sometimes and listened to me sing, meant so much to me. They clearly could have had enough of me every other day of the week, putting up with me and teaching me the ropes of the restaurant biz, but still they chose to stay after their shift was done and listen to me sing. It meant so much to me, even if I didn’t show it all that well.

Even though I came home at midnight or later almost every night, I still sat down behind the piano and filled countless pages of notebooks with songs and lyrics, because I was feeling so much and experiencing life as more of an adult. Growing up and having responsibilities was exciting to me, and as the summer drew to a close, I too began to wind down. My high school friends were leaving for college, my new friends were off to new adventures, and there I was, stuck in this same town, forced back into my old way of life.

There were just short of three weeks left to summer, and work was slowly getting quieter and quieter. I remember one night as I was cleaning the kitchen with one of my co-workers, we got to talking about music. He asked me what my favorite song was lyrically and I instantly blurted out Miss Atomic Bomb by The Killers. I explained how the way that they told the story was mesmerizing, and the lyrics keep you hooked verse after chorus after verse. Then another question slaps me in the face, “what’s your favorite song that you’ve written?” There was that same old knot, twisting up inside of me. For some reason though I opened up more than usual. I was older now, and more mature about my music. I told him the truth, which was that I was scared to sing my favorite songs for other people, because I was afraid of how they would react. Maybe my words won’t make sense to them, or maybe they won’t like the vulnerable side of me. He then told me something that stuck with me to this day. It was something along the lines that I needed to let people hear my music and not be afraid, because the people that like it, are going to love it, and I don’t need to be afraid of the people that won’t like it, because they’ll only build me up. Props to him for being so wise.

Who knew that one person could flip a switch inside of me, and all of a sudden I was ready to play my songs for people. I posted the first one, “Forevermore” on Facebook. The feedback I got was outstanding. People were sharing it left and right and texting my phone asking for more. I was overjoyed and blown away that people liked it so much.

Right before Nashville though, I went through this “funk”. All my friends were gone off to college, summer was over, and I was just plain depressed. I had gotten close with so many people, and it was hard to watch them all move on without me. So I took to the paper and pen once again, but this time locking myself in my room for days on end and writing until I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. Out of this came some of my best work though, and I am so proud of what I accomplished during this time.

My EP consists of four songs. One, which is Breathing Underwater, was written when I was younger, but the other three, were all written right before I went in for recording, when I was in that “funk”. Little White Lies, Somethin Like That, and Her, all were written in my bed, with nothing else but my pj’s on and my bedside lamp for a light.

Absolutely NONE of this would be possible without the countless people who have supported me from day one. Yes, I remember every single one of you, and I will never, ever forget you. You all mean the world to me, honestly. I am so thankful for not only the people who are in my life now, pushing me and supporting me, but for the people that have recognized me at such a young age, and stuck with me through all these years. Happy tears are clouding my eyes as I write this because of how amazing people have treated me and accepted me.

As I’m sitting here listening to my songs again, the excitement inside of me keeps building. I want to share this music with you NOW! I am so thrilled to release my “diary” to you all in a way. I can’t wait to interact with you, and see how you feel about my music. 

So as I write this blog, I am also announcing the release date of my music across the web….

(drum role please….)

 

On January 16^th, not only will I turn 19 years old, I will also be RELEASING ‘HER’ THE EP for all you lovely people to enjoy!!!!

So, I would love to connect with all of you and get to know you.

Please feel free to email me and ask me any questions you may have. Or if you need a friend, advice, any way I can help, I want to. You all have done so much for me, I am now reaching out to you.

Also, send me an email if you want to pre-order the EP. If you pre-order one now through January fifteenth, you will get a second one free to give to your friends so they can hear it too! Woohoo! Who doesn’t love free stuff!!?

You all are amazing. You all are little gifts from God to me.

So please, talk to me, I’d love to hear from you J

 

madconsoer@gmail.com

 

-Madeline

Girls Run The World.. Literally

Girls with short hair are pretty. Girls with long hair are pretty. Tall girls are pretty. Shorts girls are pretty. Skinny girls are pretty. Not skinny girls are pretty. Every single girl is pretty and I’m getting really sick and tired of people saying you have to look a certain way in order to “fit the mold” and be what everyone else considers “pretty”. It’s not fair.

I know that this is a very talked about topic right now, and I don’t want to bore anybody out of their minds by reading the same thing that they’ve seen over and over.

I’ve seen the videos proven that models are photo shopped. I’ve seen the ads that speak to millions when they say “even the girl in the magazine doesn’t look like the girl in the magazine”.  And yes, I HAVE seen people that walk past me and I think, “she’s perfect, I feel so disgusting about myself”. I’ve seen, heard, and felt it all. I’m no stranger to the scene of insecurity.

But I’ve recently had a revelation myself. My weights fluctuates like the temperatures in northern Wisconsin. One day it will be fifty degrees, the next it will be below freezing. There’s no steadiness there at all. Even though my body changes like the seasons, I need to stay confident about it all the time.

I know. It’s so hard. BEING A GIRL IS HARD.

First of all, we’ve got a lot more going on than boys do, and isn’t it scientifically proven that us women are some of the strongest people on earth?? There is no way in heaven that a man could go through what we do. I think that’s scientifically proven too... or something like that.

Anywho, since girls are straight up awesome, we should all be pretty confident, shouldn’t we? Heck we can get away with a lot. Here’s a short list:

1.       We can wear guy clothes and look pretty hot. If guys wear girls’ clothes, we question things.

2.       That time of the month thing can really be a pain, but we can eat chocolate for a week and no one bats and eye.

3.       Dark eye circles? Bruises? Zits? We got concealer for that. Again, a guy wears makeup, we begin to question.

4.       Our faces do not need to be shaved.

5.       It is always socially acceptable for us to bring a stuffed animal to bed, no matter our age.

6.       If we kind of flip our hair and shake our butts we look like we know how to dance, when we really have no idea what we’re doing.

7.       Back to the time of the month thing, we can blame EVERYTHING on that. Cranky? Tired? Angry? Don’t want to talk to anyone? …blame it on your monthly cycle.

8.       Boys bring us flowers and chocolates to make us happy.

9.       We don’t need to use stupid pick-up lines, we just kind of do that duck face thing and maybe wink and we hook the bait.

10.   We get to wear dresses, and let’s face it, it’s so easy to wear a dress. It looks like we took the time to get ready, when really we just threw one thing on and walked out the door.

11.   We don’t have to stuff boxers into our jeans.. Isn’t that kind of hard to do?

12.   If we’re short, we have the miraculous product of platform heals.

13.   We live longer than men… 7 years on average. Beat that.

 

Given these thirteen reasons to bow down, people should really realize how awesome we are. (I have nothing against men, they are wonderful beings but...) women are amazing and we need to realize this. The number on the tag of our jeans, on the screen of the scale, on the back of our shirts, doesn’t mean a thing. What does matter is what we can do with our lives. We can do anything we want if we set our minds to it. Anything at all.

Let’s become scientists, astronauts, doctors, personal trainers, models, dancers, pharmacists, super stars, truck drivers, ballerinas, professional sports players, fashion designers, inventors… we can be anybody we want.

If someone tries to put you down because you’re “too big” or your “hair is too short” or something else completely stupid and irrelevant, just walk away. You don’t ever need that kind of negativity in your life. The only opinion that matters right now is yours. Love the body you have; love your hair, love your eyes, love your smile, love your belly, love your legs, love your feet and your toes. Love yourself!!

Don’t rely on the love and acceptance of others in order to feel happy with yourself. God gave you a beautiful body, respect it.

You want to look better? Hit the gym! Eat healthy! Show love to your body instead of sitting around wishing you looked different. Change is in your hands, you possess the power to change anything you want, including yourself. So let’s quit putting others down and start building ourselves up.

You’re all beautiful. I can promise you that.

 

-Madeline

Thinkers are the Best Kind of People

I haven’t been blogging lately because I’ve been thinking.

As said by Forrest Gump himself, “life is like a box of chocolates”, and right now I’m chewing on this really sticky one with that caramel inside that’s like a surprise because you thought it was going to be some decadent, gooey, chocolate masterpiece, but instead it’s super hard to even get past the gag reflex. Nobody likes that kind of chocolate, and I’m sorry for you if you do. I wish I could just spit it out, but I can’t because it’s stuck in my teeth and it’s making things real difficult.

Last Saturday I drove down to Minnesota for the first time on my own. It was just me, the radio, and the road. I loved those four and a half hours to myself, jamming and thinking.

But then I started to think too much…

And that’s not good. When my brain starts to think, it doesn’t stop. Let me give you an example: If I start thinking about food, I’ll start thinking about what I’m going to eat for dinner, then I’ll wonder where I’m going to get it, then how I’m going to pay for it. Then I get depressed because I’ll have twenty less dollars than I did before, and then I’ll start thinking about money, and how I need to get another job. But new jobs are nerve racking, and I start to get real anxious about if I’ll find a good job, or if I’ll be stuck flippin flap jacks in the back of some I-Hop for the rest of my life, and…..

Yeah.

The brain of Madeline Consoer ladies and gentlemen.

So on this road trip of mine, you can bet your bottom dollar my gears were turning. I’ve been gathering my thoughts about my relationships with people and how I could improve with them. Saying that Nashville threw me through a loop is an understatement. What a fantastic loop it was, but I didn’t talk to a lot of people when I was there because of the lack of time, but when I did have time, I didn’t hear from some of the people that I really cared about. I think I was kind of hurt by that. I was going through something so amazing in my life, and some of the people I really wanted to share that joy with, didn’t seem to care.. or were too busy with other things to even look up and notice I wasn’t reaching out to them. Yet, here I am, still waiting for them to care for me the way I care about them, instead of moving on.

I came down to the single factor that this is my problem: I care too much for people, that don’t care even half as much about me. I don’t really see this as a bad thing though. I’m ALWAYS there for my friends, always. No matter what. I could never turn my back on anyone. It’s impossible. Someone could break my heart, but if they asked me for help a week later, I would be there. I’ve been told I’m too nice. “Thank you!” I say back, but inside I’m like “crap… I look like a pushover.” Which I am not by the way! I know how to say no, just not one hundred percent of the time.

I am a people person, and I like to make people happy. It’s easy with my music and I love it so incredibly much, but it’s harder when you’re only left with words and actions that aren’t strung together with a melody, or pre-orchestrated on a piece of sheet music. You’re left to your own devices, which can be really stressful. I’ll be honest and blunt in saying, it’s easy for me to attract people with my singing and music, but it’s hard to make them stay once they learn I don’t sing everything I say,  I’m normal and I talk, just like an average person. Normal isn’t cool, or so I’ve learned. In order to be somebody, you need to stand out, and with that I agree. I think what every person aims to do with their life, is create their own brand. Say George really likes wearing aviators. Sure, a lot of people wear those sunglasses, but nobody wears them like George wears them. That’s his brand. And while George is over here wearing aviators, Susy is out there wearing cable-knit sweaters. Susy rocks those sweaters with scarves and boots that make her brand unique.

The same thing goes for music. People always ask me, “So, what kind of music do you sing?” and I answer the same thing every time, “I sing Maddie music.”

Plain and simple.

It’s my own “brand” of music. It’s not simply country, or simply pop, or simply rock, it’s simply Madeline. And that’s all.

So I think all this thinking makes me pretty special. Yeah, it freaks me out sometimes, and I get really worried about tiny little matters, but I sure get a lot of ideas. And you know what ideas are good for? Songs!!

Because I think so much, I get tons of good songs.

So anyways, to the people that I have tried so hard to keep in touch with and be there for, I will always be here, but I think I need to take a break. I need to focus on my “brand" of music, not on the fact that you aren’t talking to me, or you’re too busy with more important matters.

Music is my muse, and I need to grind that into every little wrinkle in my brain. I need to worry about people that worry about me too. Simple as that.

You all should do that too. You only need people in your life that need you! So take a colander and put all your friends into it as if they were all floppy spaghetti noodles, and the ones that don’t fall through the little holes are the ones worth having around. Weird analogy, but hey, whatever works.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

It’s always wonderful when it’s the Christmas season anyways, so go out and look at pretty lights, go ice skating, bake cookies, make a snowman and name it, give gifts to people, give love to people. And don’t forget what Christmas is really about; Jesus was born for US, and we must always love him and worship him.

You all are amazing.. never forget that!

 

-Madeline