I learned to play the guitar because someone told me I never would. At 16, I fancied myself a punk rocker, though hindsight proves that fact false. The attitude and the clothes were probably born out of some rebellion from my upper middle class upbringing, but the bright spot in the rebellion was the music I listened to and learned from and loved.

And it made me want to start a band.

So when the band director at my college prep girls' school laughed when I asked for lessons, I sought tutorship elsewhere, my mentor being a classical guitar major at the university, a boy named Evan who fronted a college rock band called Fizzgig. He taught me scales and theory and chords, including the chord I most desperately wanted to learn that really wasn't difficult to play: the power chord.

My time with Evan ended when I left to go to school at Butler. An ex-boyfriend of mine also came to Butler and we decided to start a ska band where I would sing and he would play guitar and Ashley Plummer, former Gazette associate editor, would play the bass. She bought a vintage Fender bass from About Music on Broad Ripple Avenue and taught herself to play.

Needless to say, the ska band never happened. But I can remember driving around with Ashley during our freshman year and the Crystals' "He's a Rebel" coming over the radio. The both of us gushed that we'd always wanted a girl band to cover that song. And, friends, the seeds for the Peggy Sues were planted.

Ashley eventually sold her jazz bass for a guitar and I eventually traded the guitar for the bass. Throughout college, we tried playing with a variety of girls who didn't work out for various reasons, ranging from boys to spot-light-hoggers who really just wanted to sing.

And upon graduation, Ashley sent out a MySpace message, asking if there were any girls who could sing or play the drums. We were gonna do this thing if it killed us.

Theresa Kolbus, the Peggy Sues' original singer, replied to Ashley's cry, saying she could sing and she knew a girl who hadn't practiced in years but could play the drums. That girl was Rachael Dillard.

We wanted dreadfully to not be a band that sucked. We didn't want to be one of those bands that already have band tee shirts for their first show. We wanted our music to be good, we wanted to be tight. And we really thought we were six months after our formation (which seems like an eternity in the lifespan of bands). We played our first show in October two and a half years ago at J. Clyde's near the Emerson.

Eventually, Rachael left for bigger things and we acquired our present drummer, Arianna Applewhite, a girl who said she was more of a guitar and keyboard player, but she'd always watched her brother play the drums, so why not give it a shot. Friends, I have never in my life seen a woman with more of a natural music ability than Ari - you watch her play the drums and laugh when she tells you she doesn't consider herself a drummer.

Theresa and the Sues also parted nearly six months ago to be replaced by Melanie Starr, a woman with more stage presence, vocal range, and lyric writing ability than. . . Well, suffice it to say she's so talented that I have nothing to compare her to.

And over the past two and a half years, our goals changed. We moved from wanting to play just one show to wanting to play just one more show to wanting to play at the infamous Melody Inn to wanting to play out of town to wanting some merch of our own to wanting to record. And we did all of that. We played Indy and Cincinnati and Terre Haute and Fort Wayne and Columbus and Lafayette and Bloomington and northwest Indiana without ever going on one tour. We sold out of our tee shirts. We won Punk Rock Night's Sexiest Band Award in 2007. Your fearless editor in chief also designed our website for us, taking the majority of our band photos over the years. But I think the biggest accomplishment was when a member of the scene let us know that, finally, we weren't just the resident "girl band". We were just, in his words, a band, all novelties aside. That compliment felt really good.

And now I, too, leave the Sues. I leave for Boston to get my Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Emerson College in September. I've just left my very last Peggy Sues practice and look forward to my last two shows this week.

For me, this little silly band here was a big part of my identity. It was something I looked forward to being a part of since the age of 16 and it lived up to and exceeded every expectation I could've ever had. I have stories to last me well into old age and memories I will more than likely be writing about when I leave for grad school (both good and painfully bad).

And so? To the Peggy Sues. Current and former. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to play, thank you for writing songs with me, thank you for being confidantes and drinking buddies and people to bum cigarettes off of.

Lastly, though, assuming all of you read this in time, I invite you all to the last show I'll play with these girls. Friday, August 1, at Tantrum on Mass Ave. I want to share my last hurrah with the Sues with everyone I can. I want to play my heart out. And I'd love it if all of you were there.