INTRODUCTION

As I sat in the theatre listening to the orchestra and saw the standing ovation from the audience, suddenly it dawned on me, "that's my husband up there conducting!" I had become so caught up in the music that I became unaware of the director.

I have experienced this same emotion while listening to Blaine Anderson at his concerts and hearing the stories behind the writing of his songs. I have sat in his workshops and heard him give gentle and constructive criticism to aspiring songwriters. I have seen him talk to students one-on-one at songwriting seminars - not about songwriting, but about the pain they were going through in their lives and I become so caught up in the message that I forgot I'm friends with the messenger.

Little did I know as I grew up with Blaine, with his typical boyish charm and odd fascination with jumping on furniture that he would eventually impact so many people. Little did I know that as I watched him sing with his brother and I in our home on the holidays at the insistence of our parents, that he would go on to lead our Glee Club to two show choir national championships or that his immense talent would then take him across North America and overseas. And little did I know when he first experienced what the family thought was a sore throat that it would be the beginning of nineteen years of pain for him.

It would be difficult to write this book if it were simply about a friend, but Blaine is so much more than that. As I've heard how his songs and his life have touched and encouraged thousands of people, I realize that I not only love him as a friend, but I admire and look up to him as a songwriter who lives the words he writes.

I asked him one day, "Blaine, how can you write, feeling as you do?" His reply? "I can't not write." Early in his life, he resolved to follow his dream no matter what.

When Blaine sings to people with physical problems, he feels their pain. When he sings about making it through whatever life has dealt you, he's experienced it, and a world full of hurting, "Human" people are encouraged to keep on fighting because they know he's been there and made it through.

As you read Blaine's story, remember that there is a place for you in this world, no matter what side of the miracle you find yourself on today.


- Nicholas Duval