I’m not throwing away my shot

By Randy Capps

I’ve got to admit, it’s tough to find creative inspiration in 2020.

COVID-19 is heaping challenges on everyone, and I am no exception. Still, I did manage to find a spark recently.

My family and I, after a few half-hearted attempts to see it in person, finally got to see “Hamilton” on TV recently.

I hope I live long enough to write something in the same zip code of being that powerful. We had the music in our heads for weeks, and as a history buff, I took a deep dive into Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and some of the other lesser known Founding Fathers.

There isn’t a bad song in the nearly-threehour show, but “My Shot” hit me the hardest.

The short backstory is that Hamilton, an immigrant and orphan, arrived in New York City just before the Revolutionary War. He started with nothing but his brains and a blind ambition to become something greater than he was.

Hey yo, I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy and hungry / And I’m not throwing away my shot!

It’s a story of a man who came from nothing to getting his face on the $10 bill. His is the ultimate American success story, and the words of a young Hamilton were the same words that burned in me when I was young.

The show was just the jump start I needed. I don’t care if there is a pandemic, I am not throwing away my shot.