At the beginning of the year we make our resolutions based on what has or hasn't worked for us and others in the past. We look to successful businessmen and women for how to arrange our lives so that we too may one day own a company like Virgin Airlines. As holiday photos go up on Facebook, we notice how our faces look rounder than they did last year, and commit to more exercise and eating right. We look to the past to inform our future. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. It doesn't make you unoriginal or foolish. We get in trouble when we think that we are doing something completely new that has never been done before. Either it has and we look arrogant, or it has been tried before, failed miserably, you will look ridiculous for attempting it a second time the same way.
So this week, looking at the year to come, I think back to the past.
Like the overwhelming majority of people, I want to be happy. So I look back to the happy, fulfilled time to inform my direction.
In high school, I did nothing but band. I'm not a great musician. I watch performers on stage and wish I were them, but I remember all the joy of playing music. I kept doing band in college with the Redcoats. What was it about band that kept me involved? It wasn't a career, it was a time-consuming hobby that I didn't excel at or take advantage of to advance myself.
I liked the way music inspired me.
I liked the identity of tradition that a uniform established.
I liked that a bunch of different people came together and made something beautiful.
I liked that I was a part of something that other people enjoyed.
This year:
I want to find inspiration
I want my identity to be as strong as tradition
I want a bunch of different people to come together and make something beautiful
And, I want to be part of it.
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