Welcome

Hi I'm Josh. I am excited to be here on this blog however I have never done a blog before and I figured this would be an interesting place to start. So this blog will be about my journey learning and playing banjo. So, where do we start.... I guess I'll start by telling you a little about myself and we will go from there I'll keep a very long story short I promise. I am from South Mississippi from Laurel actually. If you don't know where that is or think you may think the name sounds familiar my town was put on the map so to speak by HGTV's Home Town (I am in no way advertising).  I'm a high school graduate and attended the local community college for a brief moment. Like most kids I had no earthly idea what I was going to do with my life. I never wanted to be famous or anything like that. I did know that I needed something I felt stagnant just going through the motions of everyday life. Started community college in the fall of 1999 in computer programming. It was challenging but I quickly lost interest and changed my major to drafting and design which I had a really good foundation from a vocational program in high school. I worked hard and studied but still something was missing. I was talking to my best friend who had disappeared without a trace for 3 months only telling his parents where he was. Well he had came home changed I could tell when we talked on the phone. We had a get together with all of our friends and I was impressed with him he definitely changed he joined the US Marines. After hanging out while he was on leave I began to think about is this something I would be interested in. I didn't tell my parents or anyone. I spoke to a recruiter with the Marines and well I was sold on the idea in 2.5 seconds and signed up. I went to boot camp Aug. 19, 2001. I was in boot camp when the Twin Towers were hit. I graduated boot camp in October of 2001 and continued my career as a Marine. I loved it I was in tanks and it was awesome. I was later deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom where I suffered a spinal injury and was sent to a hospital in Germany. After I was healed enough they sent me back to the states where I continued my service and was honorably  discharged  Well I came home and worked different jobs steadily keeping in as best of shape as I could. When I was able and ready (took me two years) I became a police officer where I still serve today. I have a wonderful wife and four amazing kids who are all very supportive.   Well over the last few years all of my injuries have really started to catch up with me but I refuse to quit. You may be asking yourself how all this ties into banjos well I'll tell you. While I was in the Marines I injured my right hand broke it kinda bad. Well since then I have had problems using it. I have two fingers that don't want to work right all the time. Well just so you know daily rehab sucks it is not interesting and I don't force myself to do it. Well I'm right handed and  two fingers and a thumb pick later I'm forced to use them. The process is slow and aggravating and I'm teaching myself because there is no one close that can teach me. But I'm working my fingers and I'm learning something I really like. So welcome to my journey I look forward to getting to know some banjo players. Like I said I'm not sure how these blogs work if you can comment on my post introduce yourself. Just please remember to keep it clean. Thanks for reading this much and I look forward to sharing my journey and getting to know new people who enjoy banjos and music.