'Her voice wasn't trained, but it was beautiful. It made me feel things. It showed me how a song can be more than words and music, how when sung with soul a song carries you to another world, to a place where no matter how much pain you feel, you are never alone.'

-Clay on his mama's voice.

'I know you cannot win every battle. Not every child can be saved. But this does not give you an excuse not to try. If you quit, all is lost. In the end, you can't give up on people, because you never know what marvel lies underneath. Joey taught me that.'

-Clay on Joey, after which he realised that teaching special education was his calling.


"To handle yourself, use your head." she'd say.
"To handle others, use your heart."

i'm in love with memoirs.
just any memoir. im hooked. i was reading Clay Aiken's Learning To Sing : Hearing The Music In Your Life. and i cried at some parts. it was heartwrenching, from the beginning when he was actually born with a collapsed lung, to the middle when he talked about how he never really had a relationship with his stepdad because both of them were afraid to try, and to the end when he paid off his mum's house and bought Brett a Firebird. He hated that it wasn't pewter like the one his stepdad bought for Brett, and bcos Brett had to sell it off to keep the family going, and that car was a little piece of his dad which slipped away.
very inspirational, and i found myself reading certain phrases or paragraphs over and over again. It made me think and i tried to empathise with him.
And how apt this sentence was, "Mom can go through BS (bullshit) and come out smelling like a rose." And when she allowed herself to hurt in front of Clay, it signified that she doesn't need to hide her hurt from Clay anymore, that he could take whatever anyone threw at him. In the span of 2 years, her husband died, one son left home for Hollywood, and her other son joined the Marines. Admirable how she held up through all that shit really. It warranted a good cry.
My penpal who moved to North Carolina from Florida went to Faye's church. They moved because her son is autistic, and North Carolina definitely has much better programs for children with autism. All due to the larger platform which Clay had due to AI, and he used it to the fullest. The Bubel/Aiken Foundation was actually a project for school, to complete the hours he missed when he was on AI. When the funds started pouring in from fans, he had USD50,000 and he decided to set it up since the funds were already there.

'The world needs a voice. Let it be Yours.'
-The Bubel/Aiken Foundation

There was a montage i downloaded recently, "Heaven" which showed Clay with Mike Bubel, trying to extend his capabilities slowly and how children just needed that little bit more patience. It moved us claymates to tears, and as Clay would have it, autism awareness shot up right here in Singapore. I applaud the ppl who have dedicated much of their time and effort to help at those events, and it was evidence what a voice can do. What HIS voice can do.

i'm still on my clack downloading spree, there's so much i've missed out on! the various tour cities, the countless interviews, and definitely the many many performances. Christmas carols or even just the Star Spangled Banner at a baseball game. no one has ever made me this way before, and indeed its revenge of the nerds.