We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nina Frink a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was a sophomore in High school and on my way to audition for All-Region in the state of Texas on my flute. We just moved up to 5A (a bigger school ranking which meant more and most likely better competition). I was stopped by a train that decided to stop on the train tracks which apparently is a common occurrence. Once I arrived to the school that we were auditioning at, I ran inside to find out where the audition room is. At this time I am already late for my audition. As soon as I got to the room, I wasn’t able to get anyone’s attention, due to the door being covered by newspaper. So I ran downstairs to find an administrator who could help me get into the room. Due to these auditions being blind, there is a rule that if someone shows up late, they can still audition, as long as they are still on the first song, if they move onto the second song, no one is allowed in the room because it will be obvious that someone came into the room. This is to protect us from there being any type of favoritism or cheating by the judges. Anyways, I ran around that school for what felt like 30 minutes trying to find someone and I finally found the teachers and administrators in the library. I was out of breathe and trying to tell them that I need to be let into the room, they made me explain myself over and over to several people for about 15 minutes. This was a waste of my time in my opinion due to me being on a time crunch. Finally when someone led me to the room to try and let me in, we found out that they had moved onto the next etude. When I tell you I was heartbroken! Mind you, I have spent months practicing each and every single day for hours!!! I would be up until 2am practicing some nights. I sat outside of the library, on the floor, with my head tucked down and balled my eyes out. I mean I ugly cried in front of everyone!! You would have thought I got the worst whoopen of my life. The next day, my band directors told me that they saw& heard me crying.. and presented me with a piccolo! They asked if I have ever played a piccolo and I told them no, and they said “well, you have less than 24 hrs to learn, the audition is tomorrow and don’t be late!” I was elated!! I skipped lunch to go practice my flute and I was able to leave some of my classes due to my work being done early and went to the band hall to practice some more! I practiced allll night and researched how to play the piccolo. I finally stopped practicing at 3am went I felt confident. The next day, while I was on my way to the audition, I was practicing while my mom drove. At this point, I had a second chance and nothing to lose! Above all else, I was and still am grateful! Now, for context, the people who play piccolo are normally either the 1st or 2nd chair player at the school (top 2 best flute player in their school), so not only am I competing with people who play the piccolo but I am going up against the top players of each school in our region! I had every right to quit due to feeling incapable or unworthy. A lot of the piccolo players came up to me and told me that I sounded really good as I rehearsed prior to our audition. I told the girls (all of the piccolo competitors were females) good luck before we went into the audition room and we auditioned. I am normally very nervous in these situations but I wasn’t even nervous because I had absolutely nothing to lose. Once the audition was over, I consoled with my best friend (at the time) Lorenzo, I told him that I was pretty sure I got last place (5th place) or maybe even 4th place! Once the results were posted I walked over to the wall to see how I placed. Yall, I did not see my name on the list and I started to freak out!! I ran over to Lorenzo and told him and he ran with me back to the wall to go see! Now mind yall, when I looked at this list, I started from the bottom and went up to the top. Next thing I know, Lorenzo yelled “NINA!!!” and I said what? He said “YOU MADE FIRST PLACE, YOU’RE MOVING ON TO AREA” yall I had to look at the list to see for myself because I could not believe it! This was the day I knew that God gave me this gift of being musically inclined.

Nina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a classically trained flutist. I have been playing for the past 10 going on 11 years. It all started when my mom told me that I would be playing an instrument and then took me to go try out instruments. I plan on playing for different events including weddings in the near future.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being a perfectionist is a waste of time. No one is perfect except for Jesus Christ. Just do whatever it is that’ll push you towards perfect and do it to your best of your ability! God will do the rest.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was a sophomore in High school and on my way to audition for All-Region in the state of Texas on my flute. We just moved up to 5A (a bigger school ranking which meant more and most likely better competition). I was stopped by a train that decided to stop on the train tracks which apparently is a common occurrence. Once I arrived to the school that we were auditioning at, I ran inside to find out where the audition room is. At this time I am already late for my audition. As soon as I got to the room, I wasn’t able to get anyone’s attention, due to the door being covered by newspaper. So I ran downstairs to find an administrator who could help me get into the room. Due to these auditions being blind, there is a rule that if someone shows up late, they can still audition, as long as they are still on the first song, if they move onto the second song, no one is allowed in the room because it will be obvious that someone came into the room. This is to protect us from there being any type of favoritism or cheating by the judges. Anyways, I ran around that school for what felt like 30 minutes trying to find someone and I finally found the teachers and administrators in the library. I was out of breathe and trying to tell them that I need to be let into the room, they made me explain myself over and over to several people for about 15 minutes. This was a waste of my time in my opinion due to me being on a time crunch. Finally when someone led me to the room to try and let me in, we found out that they had moved onto the next etude. When I tell you I was heartbroken! Mind you, I have spent months practicing each and every single day for hours!!! I would be up until 2am practicing some nights. I sat outside of the library, on the floor, with my head tucked down and balled my eyes out. I mean I ugly cried in front of everyone!! You would have thought I got the worst whoopen of my life. The next day, my band directors told me that they saw& heard me crying.. and presented me with a piccolo! They asked if I have ever played a piccolo and I told them no, and they said “well, you have less than 24 hrs to learn, the audition is tomorrow and don’t be late!” I was elated!! I skipped lunch to go practice my flute and I was able to leave some of my classes due to my work being done early and went to the band hall to practice some more! I practiced allll night and researched how to play the piccolo. I finally stopped practicing at 3am went I felt confident. The next day, while I was on my way to the audition, I was practicing while my mom drove. At this point, I had a second chance and nothing to lose! Above all else, I was and still am grateful! Now, for context, the people who play piccolo are normally either the 1st or 2nd chair player at the school (top 2 best flute player in their school), so not only am I competing with people who play the piccolo but I am going up against the top players of each school in our region! I had every right to quit due to feeling incapable or unworthy. A lot of the piccolo players came up to me and told me that I sounded really good as I rehearsed prior to our audition. I told the girls (all of the piccolo competitors were females) good luck before we went into the audition room and we auditioned. I am normally very nervous in these situations but I wasn’t even nervous because I had absolutely nothing to lose. Once the audition was over, I consoled with my best friend (at the time) Lorenzo, I told him that I was pretty sure I got last place (5th place) or maybe even 4th place! Once the results were posted I walked over to the wall to see how I placed. Yall, I did not see my name on the list and I started to freak out!! I ran over to Lorenzo and told him and he ran with me back to the wall to go see! Now mind yall, when I looked at this list, I started from the bottom and went up to the top. Next thing I know, Lorenzo yelled “NINA!!!” and I said what? He said “YOU MADE FIRST PLACE, YOU’RE MOVING ON TO AREA” yall I had to look at the list to see for myself because I could not believe it! This was the day I knew that God gave me this gift of being musically inclined.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shecopiesjc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ninaimanii/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6tqAvEVsbI

Image Credits
Eric Nwokocha