When Sam Michael was 11, she had little experience playing any musical instruments. That year, 2012, she watched her friends Lee and Chance play the guitar at the Otis Music Camp. That is when she decided she wanted to play.

“I wanted to be able to keep up with them,” Michael said.

Her friends taught her how to play the acoustic guitar.

Michael returned this year, ready to take on a new project. She collaborated with the friends who inspired her to play guitar and they set out to compose an original song.

Love and loss stood out to the trio as a theme for their composition, as Michael lost both her uncle and grandmother in the past year.

“That was rough on the family. I was close to them,” Michael said. “They were a big part of my life.”

Chance, Lee and the Otis Music Camp were not her only inspirations to begin playing the guitar. Michael’s father had a major impact on her decision to learn the instrument.

A big music fan, her father was always listening to a variety of genres in the house, from classic rock to old country, which encouraged Michael to play music herself.

“[My dad’s favorite music] made me more aware of what’s out there and more cultured in the different types of music”

“It made me more aware of what’s out there and more cultured in the different types of music,” Michael said.

Although Michael will continue having a love for music, she has accepted that it may not be her career path. She hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a nurse.

“But if an opportunity [in music] were to arise, I’m not going to give it away,” Michael said.

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