In 1985, I received one of my favourite albums for my birthday, Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi. It was then I knew what I wanted to be in life, the guy that played the beginning of "Living on a Prayer." I learned every song on that album and I can still play some of them today.

Flash forward 22 years....

In 2007, a Pastor asked me to teach a girl at his church how to play guitar. She was in grade 7 and had never picked up the instrument. The goal was to get her good enough to lead worship at church in 3-6 months. Needless to say that did not happen.

So after the introductory lesson, I sit her down in lesson 2 and ask her why she really wants to play the guitar, what she hopes to accomplish with this, and what songs she's interested in playing. So let's compare, shall we:

The pastor wanted:

1. her to play the guitar to lead worship at his church
2. her to accomplish this in 3-6 months
3. her to learn Israel Houghton and Hillsongs

The girl wanted:

1. to play the guitar because she saw India Arie do it and thought it would be fun
2. to play and sing along by herself and eventually with her friends
3. to learn Umbrella, and "anything by Bon Jovi because he's sexy and they're awesome."

She instantly became the best student I ever had, and so I put Israel and Hillsongs on the backburner and taught her "Wanted Dead or Alive."

Not only did she learn one of the greatest guitar songs she also learned how to sing lead, sing backup, jam on rhythm guitar, and learn chords. But most importantly she learned that she had the ability to sing and play the songs she wants, and she had a crapload of fun doing it.

And so did I.