As I’ve come to see it, life and music are all about making mistakes.
The important part about all of these mistakes is that they tell you who you are. Missing a note is an opportunity to improve it. Missing an opportunity to improve anything is just bad logic.
My favorite phrase when I teach is to tell my students to always make a brave mistake.
There’s no way to address what we don’t know exists, and without allowing ourselves to leap into the unknown we’ll never make progress. If there was one thing I was certain of when  came to Augustana, I was NOT going to be a music teacher, my previous schooling had certainly taught me that.
Then, there I was spring term signing that major declaration form two terms later, laughing at myself for thinking I could ever have been happy anywhere else. Waiting that whole year to dive-headfirst into Music Education was certainly my biggest mistake, and it’s one I’ve been learning from every day since.
But, it has also given me an invaluable chance to experience deeper facets of who I am as a person in the doing. Those sleepless nights, endless days, and hours of work have all shown me things that taking the easy road would never bring out.
If there’s anything worth passing on from one student to another, embrace all those horrible, awful moments as they come up.You’ll be your own best friend in those times, and your own worst enemy, and that’s just the way it’s going to be. Find what your passion is, find who you are, and then choose to use it to improve the world around you.
Destiny is not one that looks fondly on those who wait around.
For those who have managed to tolerate my insanity, I know I could never have made it were I am today alone, and I will be forever grateful. To my brothers in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Hold on. It’s been an amazing four years growing alongside you all, and I am impatient to see all the amazing things we men of music can achieve.
To those who have read this far: Be dreamers of the day. Nothing was ever done without someone deciding the positives were worth the possible negatives. Make the most of your time here at Augustana, because when it’s up, you’ll be looking back too and deciding if you were that brave student too that did what it took to make the change they dreamed of, or someone who just missed another opportunity.