Simplify 🔤

As adults, we often overcomplicate parts of life.  We stress out over things that matter in the moment, but won't matter three months from now.  Is it awesome to get straight A's on your report card?  Yes, it is!  Is it the end of the world if you get one B?  No, it's not.  I think sometimes as adults we sit and focus on that one B and forget about the seven other A's on the page at the end of a school year.

Today, as I panicked with only six days remaining until my very first Concert Assessment/MPA performance as a director, my brain was essentially the SpongeBob Clip you see below.

I did NOT forget my name, but the vision of my brain on fire, trying to make everything perfect, came into my head today.  There are days I feel like floundering.  Today, I shared that clip, and the animated gif that goes along with it, with my students.  Most laughed, or liked the image, and/or understood what I was going through; however, one student decided to try to change my thinking.

It was a bold, smart, and overall finessed move.  This student posted a clip from one of my vlogs where I say "It's just band, it's just band, it's just band."  After receiving this notification and looking at the comment on the band facebook group, I smiled.  Here is a student who is just beginning a musical journey, but is wise enough to come back at me with MY OWN WORDS proving that by the end of next week, my score and the scores of my students at MPA will be just a memory and a number on a page.

Again I say, how often we, as adults, overcomplicate matters.  Children see life so simply, and I love it.  Remember when you were younger, and you hardest decision was what book to buy at the school book fair?  Or perhaps your hardest decision was what to ask of Santa for Christmas?  Do remember when you "liked" someone and there wasn't this long, drawn-out process of seeing if they like your facebook posts or if they text you back or if they are flirting with you.  Nope.  Back then you just wrote a note on a piece of paper, passed it to your crush, and they circled yes or no.  Easy, straight forward, and not overly complicated (on a side note, don't bring your crush coffee, just pass a note instead ☕️).

Money is quite the simple subject too, from the perspective of a child.  Don't spend more money than you have.  Easy.

Being an upstanding and functioning member of society is also quite easy as long as you follow the rules.  Be kind to others and you'll go far.  No timeouts.

Why do we, as adults, have to stress out over little things that even a child can put simply?  We do this to ourselves.  These thoughts further prompted one question in my head:  "Why do we even do MPA if it's just so four individuals can get paid to tell us how well we slaved over three pieces of music for three months?"

It's simple.  MPA pushes me to be a better band director which in turn pushes my students to be better musicians, which allows me to teach very tough concepts about life through really tough concepts about music.  It is the paradox of perfection. We wake up every morning trying to teach, play, or live perfectly, knowing it will never happen.  However, that never stops us from trying to get closer to perfection every single day we live.  My goal in my career is not to make a bunch of music majors; it is to teach life skills THROUGH music.

How will I do that?  First by example.  The way I work and behave on a daily basis, in and out of the classroom should reflect EXACTLY the type of behavior I expect of my students.  The other steps happen naturally as we pour hard work and grit into what we do.  Will life always go our way?  No, it won't.  Just phone up a 20-year-old Rocky Ankeny; he will tell you that his life plans were shattered before his very eyes and it wasn't pretty.  But the 25-year-old Ankeny can tell you that it all worked out for the better in the end.

To sum it up, keep it simple stupid (talking to myself, not you, the reader).  I call this the K.I.S.S. method (I use it to teach band too).  I think that when we get overwhelmed, we just need to think like a child.  It really is simple.  Keep your eye on the big picture, and not the tiny little stain in the corner.  Odds are you won't even notice it when you step back to see the whole, glorious painting we call life!

And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven...'

− Matthew 18:3-4