by Tamwel Arts Management on Monday, May 21, 2012
I was asked to be spokesperson at a Ladies Evening Fundraiser on Friday 18th May 2012... This is the message that I gave...
When you meet someone for the first time, the general questions or comments that are exchanged are things like “Nice weather we’re having” … “did you watch the game last night?” … or my favourite “What do you do for a job?”… I find that an unimaginative, closed question!
My husband worked at subway for four years, but he wasn’t passionate about his sandwich making skills… his ‘job on the side’ helped fund his true passion through training to become a remedial massage therapist… I know an amazing person with top skills in mentoring… and she can work any large power tool you throw at her. She is currently unemployed. And for those of you who are stay at home mums, I congratulate you! People underestimate the truly important role that you play in your family’s life. You should be proud!
I believe that what we do for a job doesn’t define who we are as people. As women it is important that we truly believe that we are Unique… Important… Strong… Brave… and that we have a Purpose.
If you asked me three weeks ago what I do for a job I would have told you I just resigned from a music venue management position. To the newfound friend, that may imply that I’m perhaps a quitter; that I can’t handle what is thrown on my shoulders. People that know me however would see that I am strong, putting myself first I am willing to take a risk to achieve my goals.
Throughout my lifetime my goals have changed somewhat.
- At the age of five I dreamed of being the pianist for my local ballet school.
- At ten I dreamed of being a physiotherapist for kids with a disability.
- At fifteen, I dreamed of creating and owning a one-stop-music-shop, café & development space – I even chose the building and drew the blueprint.
- At eighteen I dreamed of being a junior primary school teacher.
- At twenty my path shifted and I dreamed of being an arts manager
- At twenty-five, my world turned 360 and I once again dreamed of teaching full time.
- At twenty-six, I can now confidently say, that other than becoming a professional physiotherapist, I have achieved all of these goals to some degree.
I challenge you to think about what you dreamed you would be when you were young. Are you doing this now? In his song Beautiful in my Eyes, Joshua Kadison sings: “The world will turn, and the seasons will change; and all the lessons we will learn, will be beautiful and strange”…
You may not be on the same path you intended you would be on ten, twenty or even thirty years ago. Our paths change, and that’s ok! We are given opportunities through our life in order to be challenged, to learn and develop, and to grow as genuine people.
My mum taught me a lot of things growing up, but the one thing that has always stuck with me is: “if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen” … so at age fourteen I taught myself guitar. My nine-year-old sister and I busked in Rundle Mall for five hours every Saturday and every Sunday without fail (and sometimes on Fridays after school) to raise money for country music festivals, musical instruments and talent quests… We bought guitars, drum kits, keyboards and mandolins with buckets of busking change… We paid for everything except food and slept in tents (sometimes flooded) at every festival to save money.
God has presented me many opportunities since this time which I am very thankful for: A Master of Arts & Cultural Management, a student exchange and scholarship to Canada, entry and graduation of the top Country Music College in Australia, supporting friends and family who I couldn’t live without, and the fantastic gift of developing music skills in people, particularly children.
He has also presented me challenges to grow and learn, and even if I hated them at the time, I realise now that our negative experiences, although stressful, help us, more than they hinder us. They open our eyes and teach us to appreciate every moment, and they help us to become better people.
So if you’re stuck in a rutt, I challenge you to find the positive side of the coin. Let me give you an example… I worked with a friend employee for six months before finding out that she had stolen $38,000 from our not-for-profit organisation. Now if I had $38,000 I’d invest in a house, or my one-stop-music-shop. She invested it in the pokies - I was SO hurt. For the next twelve months I got thrown another rein and was instructed to undertake a forensic internal audit. Now I could have kicked and screamed (and some nights I did) but I never said, “I can’t do this”. I did the best that I knew how… and made best friends with an accountant to guide me through the tricky times…
I look back now and realise this was Gods way of allowing me the opportunity to learn MYOB like the back of my hand without having to pay for the TAFE course! In fact, I gotpaid to learn MYOB so I could apply these things in MY personal business when I moved on.
Everything that I’ve experienced, everything I’ve endured, has helped me realise my true passion of teaching music. In order to achieve my music-teaching path I have run over forty music workshops and development projects for youth. I have managed two large not-for-profit music organisations, run a regular community radio program, coordinated festival projects, and taught music appreciation and guitar to students aged five to fifty-five.
In order to achieve these goals, I sacrificed many things… weekend life with school friends was exchanged for travel and hard work busking. Numerous paying jobs were turned down in exchange for 20 hours volunteer work every week, and even quality family time and social time with friends. With sacrifice however comes reward…
Sometimes the cards laid on your table aren’t all meant for you. You don’t play the cards in your hand when you play Go Fish… You borrow from the people around you and they borrow from you. Don’t half fill six boxes and wonder why you’re banging your head against a brick wall. Work out where your passion lies and dedicate your time to that. Fill Three Boxes and be passionate about all three.
In three weeks, I’ve received the gift of: 2 new independent guitar students, an offer from a music festival to contract funding applications, music stock from an old friend, and an interview with another school to teach guitar!
So my question to you is,
what is your life passion and what are you doing to nurture it?
I can’t say it better than Martin Luther King…
“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley, but be the best little shrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you will win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”…
This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often. Ask the next person you meet what their passion is, and share your inspiring dream with them. Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them so go out and start creating.
