Humans of St. Norbert:

“I’m the second of four in my family. My older sister and I are two years apart and my parents were really ambitious with how they wanted to parent us. So they made us pick a sport and an instrument because they wanted us to be well rounded. They started us out at four or five years old getting us into different activities. My older sister started doing activities before I did, which meant that since I was too young, I was dragged along to those things. The instrument that she chose was violin so it was at one of her recitals that I saw a harp. As I was getting closer to needing to pick something, my parents tried to corner me and just say, ‘Do you want to play the violin like Alex?’ and I was like, ‘No, I want to play the harp!’ They let me say that for about a year before committing to signing up for lessons and things like that.

“Thankfully, just because kids are pretty young when they start, there was a rental program so we didn’t just go out and buy a harp. My parents wanted to make sure that it was going to stick. I started out on a lever harp which was probably four feet tall and then as I got older and better, I needed a taller harp. The next progression is just switching out the legs on the harp so it can be taller. Then the step after that, if people continue on, is to transition from a lever harp to a pedal harp. Pedal harps are six feet tall so pretty substantial and not small. It’s funny because the cars I’ve driven have never been able to transport it, but growing up my parents already had a van so they could put it in and transport it that way. Now my husband has the towing capabilities.

“I’m a little out of practice based on the fact that I’m an adult and have had to do adult things like college and jobs and stuff. From start to finish, I’ve been playing for about 26 years. I’m classically trained and took lessons until I was about 17. I appreciate looking back at the discipline and the practice. I think when I decided that I wanted to keep doing it and move to the larger harp was when it switched from just something I do to something I enjoy doing.” – Milena Shabert, marketing account coordinator