A story for you…
A speaker started off his seminar by showing a $20 bill to the public. He asked the people “who wants this?” There was no surprise to see that all of them lifted their hands. He offered to give the money to one of them but insisted that he will do something to it.
He crumpled the paper money and showed it again to the crowd and repeated the question.
Still, everyone raised their hands. He then put the money into the ground and stepped on it and then raised it again and offered it to the public. The people gathered there still showed interest to take that money despite seeing how dirty the note was. He told the public” No matter what I did to this money, you all still wanted this. You all went in favor of my offer just because the value of the money never decreased despite all I did to it. Similarly, value yourself despite the painful conditions or failures.”
The moral of the story? Believe in yourself and work hard to achieve success. Value yourself irrespective of the failures or obstacles and don’t degrade yourself just because of the temporary setbacks.
When I was a new teacher, I was constantly filled with self-doubt. I remember telling myself, “I wish I was as good of a teacher as my high school & college band directors.” When I looked at them I saw everything that I wanted to be: confident, inspirational, graceful, intelligent. In a word--perfect. I thought I owed it to them to be as impactful to my students as they were to me. But every time a kid quit or misbehaved I felt I was failing. I had this idea in my mind where I would never measure up. But, that all changed on a ride home from an honor band about ten years into my career. All the kids had gone home with their parents except for this one student. She was babbling on about the usual middle school girl banter: friends, Justin Bieber, social media, etc. Suddenly she stopped and said, “Why’d you become a band director?” I tried to come up with something profound, but all I managed to mumble was something about liking music and my band directors. She thought for a moment and replied with the most meaningful statement:
“Well, I’m glad you’re a band director. You get to make people happy! You make me happy!”
It was then that I got it, the whole point of it all. I’m not perfect, I never will be mistake-free. But, I was her perfect band director. I came to the realization that with all my faults that I could inspire my students. So for my young friends (and some of us older ones)--never doubt yourself, strive to improve each day, don’t forget to look at the big picture, and someday you will discover that you are someone’s perfect band director.
Enjoy the last half of summer,
Jeana Larson
IBA President