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Waitressing, college courses, power naps and bus trips between New York City and Washington, D.C., recording studios defined a typical day for Glenarden's Patrice Jones.

But when the schedule began taking its toll on the blossoming R&B artist, Jones asked her parents in late 2008 to give her one year to fully devote herself to singing and songwriting.

"I was a jack-of-all-trades and not a master of one thing," Jones said.

Today, Jones, 22, is inching closer to making her dreams come true. Though she is unsigned, she is working on a debut album which she hopes to complete by March 1. She is still working on an album title. She registered her own song publishing company through Broadcast Music Inc., Little Dot Publishing, named for her grandmother, Dorothy Jones, a Glenarden resident.

As a member of Glenn Dale's Reid Temple AME Church Choir, Jones performed Jan. 17 behind Yolanda Adams during the BET Honors Concert at the Warner Theatre in the District.

"[There's] so much talent [in the Washington metropolitan area] but it's never been given the spotlight," Jones said. "There are artists who have come out of here but you would've never known they came out of here like the Myas and the Ginuwines."

R&B singer Mya, born Mya Harrison, graduated from Greenbelt's Eleanor Roosevelt High School in 1996. Another R&B singer Ginuwine, born Elgin Lumpkin, graduated from Forestville High School – now Forestville Military Academy – in 1993.

One of Jones' favorite songs that she's written, "I Know I'm Going To Cheat On You," deals with a woman who has found a good mate but doesn't feel emotionally ready to handle another relationship.

"I think that song will touch a lot of guys and girls because it's an honest song," Jones said. "[It's] for the nice guys who can't get the right girl. The chorus goes ‘I know I'm going to cheat on you because I don't know what to do with a good man like you.'"

Jones said songwriting is therapeutic. She recalled a January 1994 childhood accident where she fell after flipping off her bed and shifted her spine. She was paralyzed temporarily from the waist down.

Doctors at Children's National Medical Center in Washington told Jones she would never walk again. Her parents even considered purchasing a one-story house in case she spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Jones recovered and learned to walk again two months after the accident. Later that year, her parents divorced.

"Every time I think about something heavy and deep I thought about how I got through," Jones said.

Jones let her star potential shine when she won a 2002 contest to write the official school song for Springdale's Charles H. Flowers High School's first graduating class, the class of 2003. Flowers opened in 2000. Until the contest, Jones kept school and music separate, choosing student government and track and field over choir.

After graduating from Flowers in 2004, she spent a year at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., but due to high tuition costs, returned to enroll at Largo's Prince George's Community College.

Jones sings backup for Washington, D.C., R&B artist Vincent Richardson, known as V. Rich. Richardson is scheduled to release his album "Addicted" in about a week. He said Jones is an excellent song writer and vocal arranger.

"I see greatness," Richardson said. "I think she's going to break through that glass ceiling the industry has and be a star. I really do see that for her."

Jones performs every Tuesday at the Red Lounge in the District and is scheduled to perform 6 p.m. Feb. 15 at the East Moon Asian Bistro in Bowie.