Mushfake

Aren't You A Little Young

Mushfake. Pretty weird word right. The word comes from prison slang and refers to, "making do with what you have when the real thing isn't available"(13).To understand what it means in a writing class, first you have to understand what a Discourse, with a capital D means. James Paul Gee defines a Discourse as, "a sort of 'identity kit' which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize" (7). Therefore mushfake Discourse, according to Gee is, "...partial acquisition coupled with meta-knowledge and strategies to 'make do'."(13) Essentially fake it till you make it. And we've all been there. So to help better understand me, here is my mushfake story.

One day toward the end of my senior year of high school my band director called me into his office and asked if I could fill in for the summer with the San Diego Concert Band, because one of their percussionists was going to be out with an injury. Even though I had never even heard of the San Diego Concert Band, I was flattered that he came to me rather than asking a college musician or even professional musician. I accepted figuring it would be pretty easy, and a fun way to keep drumming over the summer. The first rehearsal I showed up to I very quickly found that it may not be so easy. The San Diego Concert Band is a local community band mostly made up of people born a century ago. I'm joking or course, but I was by far the youngest in the band. The people closest to me in age in the band were in their thirties, the average age for the whole band was probably between forty five and fifty, and there was even a percussionist who turned eighty six at one of our rehearsals. To say the least, I was a bit out of my element. Of course I'd spent plenty of time around people older than me, but I had never really spent much time socializing with people outside of my immediate age group. At first introducing myself to all the other members was a bit awkward and forced and there was a clear disconnect. Immediately I put my head down and just focused on playing the music as best as I could and hoped that I'd be able to last the summer. It wasn't until the second rehearsal that I finally figured out my in. Ironically, music. But not playing it, talking about it. I found if I could always somehow direct the conversation toward music I could fit in well enough. Although you can't always talk about music, especially for an entire summer so I needed some other way to fit in with a group of people who had probably only heard about "chatsnap" from their kids. Once again I fell to music, but this time music history. Specifically their history. I would sit and ask questions about the other members background in music. Not only did this help me fit in better but I got to hear countless amazing stories about these musicians. Several of them spent their early years struggling as a musician barely making it by, sleeping all day and staying up all night. My new ability to fit in even made it possible for me to socialize with members of the band outside of the percussion section, which is something I normally avoided in high school band. When the summer finally came to a close I surprisingly had many the other members in the group asking if I could stay and continue playing with them for the year. Shocking to me more than to anybody else I actually wanted to stay and keep playing. Unfortunately I was taking a class during the upcoming semester that directly conflicted with rehearsals. So I said my goodbyes to the people who I was afraid and nervous of at first, but could now call my friends thanks to the power of mushfake.