I never knew that the activity I fell in love with end up being my reason to live. In sixth grade I joined percussion in middle school. My percussion director told me that I could have a potential career in music and a few years later, he proceeded to sit with me and discuss careers. Now, as a junior in high school, I want to follow his footsteps.

My freshman year of high school, my director asked to talk to me in his office. For the first time, I walked in and the smell of old carpet and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups overwhelmed the room. There was a mallet bag stuffed with different colored mallets in it behind his door, an old Marimba One bar in a wooden show case, a white couch only big enough for two people to sit on, and a wooden book shelf filled with different percussion books and movies. I thought to myself, “I want my office to be like this. Full of life, cluttered, but organized in a way to where I would know exactly where things were.” He goes behind his desk in a spinning chair and I sit on the little white couch up against the window. “I thought you would like my office.” He said. As he proceeded to talk about everything in his office I just kept wondering why he called me in there. Once he realized that I had stopped listening five minutes earlier, he asked me if I ever thought of becoming a percussion director. My response, “Of course.”

His face turned into a giant grin that looked like a cartoon because it was so big. “Really?” he said as he started to chuckle. Once I said that music education had a good chance for my future career path, he asked me why and my response to him was, “because of you.” After I said that, he just started rambling on-and-on how great it was to pursue a career in music education. For once, I felt like I actually understood what life was all about. He told me about college and what my options were for majors and undergrads and how I should be excited how he can help me about my future career. He then said he would always be a person that I could trust if I needed to talk to someone and that he would always support me and my career decisions. I felt like an open field with blue skies, white clouds, and fresh cut grass on a sunny day. I then knew that his impact on me helped make a decision to pursue a career in music education.

As he said that we were done talking for now, I started to walk into the band hall which smelled like spit, old carpet, food, and a thirty year old locker room all at the same time. A huge cluster of people drug me into their circle and brought me into another conversation. From then on my life changed. My days brightened a little and my relationship with my director grew. He is the reason not only percussion, but music is my passion and the right career path for me.