These are two quotes from a book I was assigned to read in my Cultivating Creative Expression Through Music class (long name for a class that is basically elementary school music), titled The Art of Possibility.
"Mistakes can be like ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of defeat. If we include mistakes in our definition of performance, we are likely to glide through them and appreciate the beauty of the longer run."
-Rosamund Stone Zander
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The would will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how vulnerable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open."
-Martha Graham
Something I said the other day as a comment on my optimism and just how beautiful of a day it was:
"Instead of having to look on the bright side, today it just is the bright side." : )
Recently I have been thinking about God's plan for my life and how I know that I will end up exactly where He needs me to be. I know this because of where I am now.
I will start with my literal position in the world. I live in the tiny town of Boone and attend Appalachian State University. This came as a surprise to basically everyone at my high school. I graduated something like number 29 in my class of 555. My GPA was 4.46 and I took 6 AP classes. My adviser told me I needed to apply to more rigorous schools, and my teachers willingly filled out recommendations for various schools and scholarships. I applied to UNC Wilmington, App State and UNC Chapel Hill and was accepted to all three school. I am not saying this to brag by any means, but to say that I was "supposed" to go to Carolina. You should have seen Ms. Douglass' (my AP English teacher) face when I announced to the class that I had turned down Carolina for Appalachian! People ask me all the time why I didn't go to Carolina. It is a hard thing to explain to people who are not Christians, because I don't really have a logical reason. I may say it is because I liked the Elementary Ed program at App better (which is true) but really it is because I know God wanted me at App. I felt peace about it and just knew it was God.
Along with the college I attend is the major I selected. I mentioned before that I took some of the toughest classes offered at Wakefield and got good grades in them. I was also the fist chair cellist junior year and solo cellist senior year in the orchestra. I love music sooo much and music theory just comes naturally to me. I can say the thing I found the most pleasure working hard in was music. But I am not a music major. Not even music education. I am doing Elementary Ed partly because I have always said that was what I was going to do, but also because I honestly can't see myself being so extremely happy doing anything else. I have spent years in prayer over what I should major in, and God has yet to change my heart to desire anything else.
So maybe people think I am not reaching my potential or just taking the easy way out, I am happy to tell you that they are highly mistaken. I am going to do what God wants me to do, and if it looks foolish to anyone else, too bad.
