Journal #52: Day Ten…Dear Anonymous Fan

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You never know when another person’s generosity, kindness or vulnerability will arise and change your life. So today, I salute “the fan” and every one of you…

Dear Anonymous Fan,

Throughout my seven years of street performing on 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, there were countless moments when you and other fans of my music threw me for a loop and deeply impacted my heart.

Fortunately, a hand full of you left behind tangible gifts of kindness during those tiny moments of joy and happiness, and today I would like to honor you, the fan, for that. You who’s vulnerability, individual generosity and support gave me what I needed to keep on sharing my music on a daily basis with the community.

While you never spoke your name, as you simply left that special gift behind as I sang my songs, you touched my life. YOU inspired ME to keep going when the days got rough and quite trying on my hands and voice from hours of performing. You unleashed my smile when exhaustion, doubt and frustration set in. You reminded me that my music did make a difference when at times I just thought, “What’s the point! No one is even listening. It’s time to just go home and call it a day.”

As I played on 3rd Street, day in and day out, as I lugged my gear two hours each way on the bus, from Hollywood to Santa Monica on the #304 to the #4, as I took risks and lifted my courage to limitless levels, knowing there was no turning back; even though deep down I wanted to reverse the tides and race back to safety, to what was familiar… each and every day ONE of YOU miraculously appeared at the oddest times, reminding me that I needed to be there, I needed to return tomorrow, that the community was there for me and I needed to be there for them.

To the fans who allowed me to grow as an artist and person on the streets of Santa Monica, while I never did officially get your name, as you ghostly walked on by, dropping a new memory into my guitar case, I THANK YOU, from the very bottom of my heart. You touched my heart and I am forever grateful.

And so my hope TODAY is to return that favor, giving everyone around me a NEW gift, in honor of all of your acts of kindness. To record new music and spread those songs around to an even bigger community; the world. We cannot keep anything worth keeping unless we continue to give it away generously. Yes, today I just wanted to let you, the fan, know that YOU are the very reason I continue to put one foot in front of the other on this musical adventure. Yes. YOU Complete ME!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love,

Jenny

The Stories Behind 3rd Street Promenade

STORY #1: A homeless man left me in utter bewilderment, gratitude and surprise during my first three weeks of street performing on 3rd. As I was performing my songs, a man passed me by and then proceeded to walk up and down the street looking for something, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

I continued singing as I noticed, from the corner of my eye, this cardboard box he’d apparently grabbed hold of, which he started ripping apart. It took a while but he finally got it to the size he was happy with. Then he went off again, for another forty minutes or so.

When he returned, he had a marker in his hand. He sat on a bench near by and began to write something on that piece of cardboard. When he finally finished, he walked up to my guitar case and placed this sign in it, “Miss Jenifer VAZQUEZ OF THE BRONX”. He said people would need to know my name if I was gonna be singing here. I was speechless. His kindness was overflowing. My heart completed touched!

p.s. The reason it’s all smudged? One day it rained as I was performing and it got wet. I tucked it away in a special place so I’d always have the memory to look back on.

STORY #2: Here’s another one that totally brought my heart to tears and then to a smile. A man ended up homeless after his wife got cancer and left them broke from all the doctor bills. When she passed away, he ended up homeless after doing all he could to keep him off the streets. He was a military man and took really good care of himself, as I was shocked he was without a home.

How did I meet him? One day, as I was taking a break on 3r Street, he complimented me on my music and we just started talking. After listening to this story, how his wife was the love of his life and how after she was gone everything changed, I expressed my gratitude with him for sharing such a personal story. This man would come by 3rd Street every few months.

One day he dropped by and gave me this gift. He said he used to play guitar and his wife made this for him before she got sick. He said I should have it. I told him I couldn’t take it and he said I needed to, I would make use of it and it deserves to be used. I was touched beyond words.

To this day, I use this guitar strap.

STORY #3: So this gentlemen sat himself by a curb close by to where I was playing on this particular day. He sat there for two hours, sketching something. When he was finally done, he dropped this into my guitar case. WOW!

And this gentlemen, well, he just stopped by during his lunch break and sat on a bench doodling and left this for me…

STORY #4: Finally, this artist painted this picture while I was singing a few songs which inspired him to paint this… I believe one of those songs was, “I Knew Her So Well.” He wanted me to have it…