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FROM STAFF REPORTS / Editorial

Seven-year-old Evan Riley Lofthus should be an inspiration to us all. The second grader at Mr Laurel Elementary School recently got the opportunity to travel to Nashville, known as Music City, to sing in some of the most popular venues on Broadway Street.

It’s a spot some wait years for, but at the young age of seven, she found herself in the spotlight and she rocked the stage. Before stepping on stage, she had never performed with a band, but not only did she do an amazing job with her first band, she was so good, she was asked to join two other bands to sing in a total of three different sets.

Oh, and she did it at two of Broadway’s most popular venues, Tottsie’s Orchid Lunge and Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk & Steakhouse.

How did a 7-year-old girl end up performing at not one, but two, venues in Nashville’s bustling Broadway entertainment district? Well, it all started when she was 5 years old.

Watching “The Greatest Showman” one day, she became obsessed with the movie and started singing along. Her mother noticed how talented she was and Evan Riley fell in love with the art of singing immediately.

She took advantage of voice lessons from the MLES music teacher and was eventually noticed by voice coach Steve Pennington during a school-wide Christmas performance. Pennington has been working with her for the last six months and helped set up the Nashville performances.

If you hear her voice, it’s awe-inspiring to realize a 7-year-old can belt out music like she can.

But it just started with loving something for her.

From there, she combined her natural ability with determination to get better and now she is taking off with the goal of being like her favorite music artist, Carrie Underwood.

While many of us may feel like we are over the hill and past the days of being able to chase our dreams, that’s not necessarily the case, and at the very least, it should motivate us to at least do something we love.

Even if it’s just in your spare time as an extracurricular activity to have some fun, doing what we love is an easy way to release stress and make life feel more like it did when we were younger without a care in the world.

We may not all be the next Carrie Underwood, Michael Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and so on, but we should at least make time to do what makes us happy and chase any dreams that are left unfulfilled.