Life has a funny way of dealing us an unexpected hand. As most of you know, I'm now an Assistant High School Band Director. Like many folks, this wasn't always the plan I had in mind as I grew up.
In my very early years I had an OBSESSION with trains, as many young boys do! Thomas the Tank Engine was my favorite show; I had the model trains from the show in wood AND metal forms, and many other train accessories. It even got to the point where I made my parents chase trains around the neighborhood until they disappeared from sight. I made train sounds, impersonated trains from Thomas, and went on trips to see train museums — I was obsessed. If you had asked me, back then (around 4 or 5 years old), what I wanted to do with my life, I would have told you that I wanted to grow up and become a train conductor or driver. That plan stayed for awhile too!
Fast forward to the end of elementary school. At this point, camcorders (yes this reveals that I may have just turned 25) were just becoming popular AND affordable. My parents got me one for my birthday or Christmas one year and it was amazing. They knew I liked to put-on plays and act, and I wanted to make my own movies. I began filming everything: I tried typical home movie shots (vlogging before vlogging), I tried new interesting camera angles in an attempt to recreate big-time movie shots, and recorded plays my friends and I created in my kitchen "stage" area. Fast forward once again to middle school, when YouTube was created (gosh I feel old). My parents bought me my very first laptop because I begged and pleaded and gave a very convincing argument for a middle schooler who needed technology to catapult into the late 2000's. This laptop led to buying a webcam, which led to teaching myself video editing! I could finally post to YouTube! If you would've asked me what my future would be at this time, I would've told you I was going to become a Hollywood Film Director.
From there, I kept learning, and shooting short films/skits, getting better and better. Eventually, in high school I thought my future was set in stone; I will be a film director. However, something happened: Band took over quickly. By the time I reached the end of senior year I decided that I wanted to double major in film and music (not knowing that this would've killed me).
After senior year, I marched my first summer with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. This changed everything dramatically. I came back home and taught my high school marching band. I fell in love with music education and the joys and demand that go along with it! I loved seeing students (peers at the time) have that AHA moment. I loved writing choreography and watching it appear on an 100-yard stage. It was a combination of all that I loved. I decided I would become a high school band director. I have followed that dream, and here I am today. If you ask me where I'll be in 10, 20, 30 years? For once, I'm unsure. I believe and hope I'll still be teaching band, but who knows what it will evolve into in that span of time.
If I've learned anything, it's that our plans do not always reflect God's plan. If everything had gone the way I had originally planned, I would've married my high school sweetheart, been the sole band director at a brilliant high school, have bought a house back home, have names already picked out for my future kids, avoided coffee catastrophes, become the best horn player in the world, marched Carolina Crown, and created the best YouTube channel anyone had ever seen with skits; however, all of these goals I set fell through my fingers. Was it disappointing? Sure. Heartbreaking? You better believe it. Crippling at times? Absolutely. But...did I grow from it all? Yes — more than anyone could possibly know. I am all the better for it despite the scars.
God used every one of those situations to change my life and affect every person I've come into contact with. We may not see it in the heartbreak or frustration, but He is moving things for our betterment and the betterment of His people and Kingdom.
In my very early years I had an OBSESSION with trains, as many young boys do! Thomas the Tank Engine was my favorite show; I had the model trains from the show in wood AND metal forms, and many other train accessories. It even got to the point where I made my parents chase trains around the neighborhood until they disappeared from sight. I made train sounds, impersonated trains from Thomas, and went on trips to see train museums — I was obsessed. If you had asked me, back then (around 4 or 5 years old), what I wanted to do with my life, I would have told you that I wanted to grow up and become a train conductor or driver. That plan stayed for awhile too!
Fast forward to the end of elementary school. At this point, camcorders (yes this reveals that I may have just turned 25) were just becoming popular AND affordable. My parents got me one for my birthday or Christmas one year and it was amazing. They knew I liked to put-on plays and act, and I wanted to make my own movies. I began filming everything: I tried typical home movie shots (vlogging before vlogging), I tried new interesting camera angles in an attempt to recreate big-time movie shots, and recorded plays my friends and I created in my kitchen "stage" area. Fast forward once again to middle school, when YouTube was created (gosh I feel old). My parents bought me my very first laptop because I begged and pleaded and gave a very convincing argument for a middle schooler who needed technology to catapult into the late 2000's. This laptop led to buying a webcam, which led to teaching myself video editing! I could finally post to YouTube! If you would've asked me what my future would be at this time, I would've told you I was going to become a Hollywood Film Director.
From there, I kept learning, and shooting short films/skits, getting better and better. Eventually, in high school I thought my future was set in stone; I will be a film director. However, something happened: Band took over quickly. By the time I reached the end of senior year I decided that I wanted to double major in film and music (not knowing that this would've killed me).
After senior year, I marched my first summer with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. This changed everything dramatically. I came back home and taught my high school marching band. I fell in love with music education and the joys and demand that go along with it! I loved seeing students (peers at the time) have that AHA moment. I loved writing choreography and watching it appear on an 100-yard stage. It was a combination of all that I loved. I decided I would become a high school band director. I have followed that dream, and here I am today. If you ask me where I'll be in 10, 20, 30 years? For once, I'm unsure. I believe and hope I'll still be teaching band, but who knows what it will evolve into in that span of time.
If I've learned anything, it's that our plans do not always reflect God's plan. If everything had gone the way I had originally planned, I would've married my high school sweetheart, been the sole band director at a brilliant high school, have bought a house back home, have names already picked out for my future kids, avoided coffee catastrophes, become the best horn player in the world, marched Carolina Crown, and created the best YouTube channel anyone had ever seen with skits; however, all of these goals I set fell through my fingers. Was it disappointing? Sure. Heartbreaking? You better believe it. Crippling at times? Absolutely. But...did I grow from it all? Yes — more than anyone could possibly know. I am all the better for it despite the scars.
God used every one of those situations to change my life and affect every person I've come into contact with. We may not see it in the heartbreak or frustration, but He is moving things for our betterment and the betterment of His people and Kingdom.
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts...
— Isaiah 55:8-9
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