My final Osborn music performance was last night. Our band played for the OHS graduation. The band did great. I am really going to miss the kids every day. I was especially honored to be asked to give the commencement address to the class and was a little nervous. I spoke to them about the fact that until now, their experiences have been planned for them by teachers, parents, and others and now they would need to plan their own experiences wisely. I challenged them to follow their passion and seek the purpose that God had prepared them for. I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my heart with them and wish them the best for the future. If you want to read my commencement address, you can keep reading. I will paste it below.
Congratulations, class of 2008!
Osborn Graduation 2008
I want to thank you for inviting me to speak today, I am honored.
This is a special group for me as a music teacher and band director. When I started working here, these students were in the 5th grade beginning band during my first year at Osborn School. As I leave, they are my graduating seniors. That is a goal for most band directors, to see a group of kids from beginning band through graduation. I believe Sammy, Hannah, and Brett were here in 5th grade and Alex and Daniel were adopted along the way. Here are a few pictures that I have taken of them from the past few years.
(Picture Slideshow)
It has been a pleasure to be a part of their lives and I am overwhelmed to be here today speaking at their graduation.
I have probably attended more graduations than most people in the room. As a band student and band director, I have attended at least one graduation and sometimes two per year since 1984. Many times I have thought about what I would say if I were given the opportunity to speak, but as I prepared for tonight, I couldn't remember any of them. I also don't think I can even remember who spoke at my high school graduation, let alone what they said. I hope that for these graduates, some of the things that I have said to them countless times in class will be what they remember. Things like: "Why do something poorly, when you can do it well",or "If you know the right thing to do, don't do something else.", or "Don't drop your marching band shoes out of the bus window." I hope that I will be able to keep updated on your lives and rejoice with all of the accomplishments that lie ahead of you. I can't wait to hear about them.
Teaching grades K-12 have given me a little better understanding of how children grow. The perspectives a kindergarten student has on life is different than a 5th grader or a freshman or a senior in high school. They all see things according to their understanding of the world. My first week teaching at Osborn was the first time I taught a kindergarten class. Suddenly, these children who had spent their entire lives safe at home were sent to music class with a very large scary looking man who was trying to sing to them. I know that when Mrs. Beers left them alone with me at least one of them cried and others weren't too far behind. I quickly understood that this was all new to them. They had never had a experience like this before and it was frightening. This was something totally foreign to them. I might as well have been a Martian. Soon, however, they gained experience and realized that I was not all that scary and that I was actually teaching them something fun. .... Many of you will have new experiences soon. You may enter a job or a college class and see a very large scary person trying to teach you something. Don't cry! It's just something new. Learn all you can and you may find out that it is actually fun. Hang in there and you will gain valuable experience.
Our experiences in life shape who we are. What I would like to challenge you with today is how you build your experiences after graduation. Until now, many of your experiences have been planned out for you. Your parents, teachers, coaches and others have spent time with you in activities that gave you experiences. Those were called LESSONS. Learning experiences, (like classes and homework) emotional experiences (like basketball games) and social experiences, (like school dances), cultural experiences (like music classes), and spiritual experiences (like church and prayer times)... in the hopes that at some point in your life, you would be able to draw on those experiences and make good decisions about the future. Well, the future is here........ and you now get to begin to make some of your own choices. Remember that we, your teachers, parents, and friends will never stop helping you, but you are now going to start taking over some of the decisions about what experiences you will experience. You will decide what kind of view of the world you will have.
I went to my 20th class reunion this past summer. Can you guess what your classmates will be doing in 20 years? What they will look like? Just to give you and idea of what changes may lie ahead for some of you, Here was my senior picture. (show picture) I especially wanted you to notice the black socks with white tennis shoes. At the reunion, some of my classmates looked like they stepped right out of their yearbook picture. Some on them looked just like their parents looked. One of my classmates was an elected Missouri state representative in Jefferson City. One of my classmates has spent most of those 20 years in jail and is still there. Their choices helped create their lives. When you have your 20 year reunion, what kind of life will your choices have created for you? Will you be able to look back and say "What a great life?" or will you say, "I wish I would have...." or "I wish I wouldn't have..." One day you will be older and you will look back on your life. Make the choices that will give you things to be proud of. Plan your own experiences well.
The choice to better yourself by continuing your education is a good way to plan your experiences. Choosing to join a church will lead you to a good type of experience. The friends you choose to spend time with will have a lot of bearing on the experiences you have. Sometimes we forget that we have to be careful what experiences we allow ourselves to have. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. You will have a lot of chances to do things that you know are dangerous or stupid. Choose the kinds of situations that will lead to good experiences. Use the lessons that your family and teachers have given you to help you to steer clear of negative, destructive, and hurtful future events. If you decide to ignore your past experiences and just "take your chances" with everything as it comes, you could be burdened with some negative experiences that you may never be able to fully get rid of. Protect yourselves by making good choices.
I don't believe that I have said anything here tonight that your parents, teachers, and loved ones have not told you over and over again. The only thing that will make it new is when you decide to apply it to your life. Trust people that have been there before. Learn from the mistakes of others and you won't have to learn by making your own mistakes.
The other thing I want to challenge you to do is to follow the passion that is in your heart. The question that I asked myself my senior year was "If I have to get up every morning and do something, what would I want to do?" My thoughts quickly settled on music. My dad very politely asked if I was going to be taking any other classes in college besides music in case I needed anything to "fall back on." I don't think he saw a music degree as a real money-maker. But he did encourage me. I told him that I did have to take other classes. Mom encouraged me to follow what I enjoyed doing. That is what I would encourage you to do. If you do what you have a passion for, you will still have to work hard, but the result will thrill you. You will run into obstacles, but you will enjoy the challenge of overcoming them. You will work along-side people who share the same joy and talents that you have. Follow your passion.
Lastly, stay true to your beliefs. I am so fortunate that I have had a set of experiences that good parents and teachers had given me. I remember my sixth grade teacher telling me things like "people will believe what you say until you give them a reason not to.".. My dad taught me not to leave a project for someone else to, everyone involved helps until the project is done. My church experiences taught me how good it feels to do what God has for me to do.
Many of my students have asked me why I am leaving teaching and pursuing a call of ministry. It is because of a path I started on the summer after I graduated high school. I decided at age 12 to dedicated my life to following what God wanted me to do. The summer before college, I was baptised at my church as a sign that I wanted to seek God and that I wanted others to know about it so they could help me stay on track. I pursued my passion of music and let God open and close doors in my life to guide me where He wanted me to be. The reason that I did these things was because I wanted to be able to look back at my life and say, "I tried to become everything I was created to be. I followed the creator's guidance for my life and He gave me a life more abundant and more joyful than I could ever imagine." I have not always been happy every minute of the day, but I have been at peace with my life. I have felt fulfilled and useful and quite a bit of the time... very happy. So far, this plan has worked very well. I cannot imagine a life that could be more rewarding than what I have. Another one of my high school classmates is a band director in the Kansas City area and has hundreds of students, marched in the Macy's parade in New York, and makes a lot more money than I do. He has asked me many times about applying for a job in his district and I have always quickly turned him down. I am living right where I am designed to live and doing exactly what I was created to do. There is no way to improve on this situation. Now God will use my experiences here at Osborn to more fully realize His fulfilling purpose for the next chapter of my life. I challenge you to approach the next chapter of your lives the same way.
Some of you have been created to change the hearts and minds of America. Some of you have been created to change the hearts and minds of the people in Osborn. Some of you may be created to be an American hero. Some of you may be created to be a hero to your family and friends. God knows what your purpose is. Seek your purpose. You already have the clues you need to find it. It is in your passion, it is in your personality, it is in the experiences He has given you. Use all of them to find out how you have been designed to impact your world. Thank you.
