My story is not the conventional type. I've been listening to Sinatra since birth, but he was way before my time. I'm going to be a junior in college, 19 years of age. Whenever I would drive in the car with my parents, or sometimes before dinner, Sinatra's CDs and music would be ringing throughout the car speakers or my house speakers. Sinatra just seemed natural and soothing. Year after year I memorized the words to his songs, subconsciously, just because I had heard them so many times. I guess, somehow, I learned his timing, and my own singing began to mimic his style.

In 1998, when he passed, I was only 8 years of age, but my parents had told me about his death. Immediately, I hopped onto the family computer, without my parents knowing, and signed onto the Sinatra family website. I typed in my condolences. The next day, my father got a phone call from his brother, who was reading the newspaper before work. Apparently, my condolence had been featured in the paper, stating that an 8-year-old girl had been touched by Sinatra.

As I ventured forth into adolescence, I began vocal training. It seems that all I wanted to sing was Sinatra songs. In my first recital, I sang an old Italian song, and closed my performance with my own rendition of "My Way." In the front row of the audience, my father and grandfather subtly tried to hide their tears. They were amazed at the fact that somehow I had channeled Sinatra in my own performance of his classic hit.

Not a day goes by when I don't marvel at Sinatra's inherent talent, a talent that you don't find in contemporary singers or musicians. All I know, is Sinatra taught me, from a young age, what it meant to passionately sing your heart out. Without his music, I don't think I ever could have loved music the way I do now.

Ashley