9/11 - Abundance

I am surrounded by excellent musicians here in Denton. I went to a jam session tonight, but I didn't even play; I watched as seven or eight other drummers played music improvised and unrehearsed, and each of them sounded great, with their own techniques and ways about their playing. All of the piano players were really great, the guitarists were gifted, the vocalists had great tone, horn players could improvise over anything, and bassists, though scarce, were very reliable yet creative and imaginative. Almost all of the musicians I saw were really great, and I learned something from every person at that session.

In school and in ensembles, I'm continually surrounded by excellence. It's abundant, it's omnipresent, it's everywhere. All of the musicians I'm friends with are great at what they do, and if they need work on something, they take care of it quickly and professionally. They're the cream of the crop, and they inspire me to become a better version of the musician I am.

Experiences here are quite abundant as well. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to put yourself in a stressful situation. Here in Denton, you can take it easy and you can put the pressure on; you can slowly start to challenge yourself, or you can force yourself to be the best in the most extreme circumstances. Some places just don't have some of the situations I find myself seeing and experiencing here in Denton, and that's because what I'm hoping to do for a living is taken very seriously, more seriously than most other universities or places to learn, so it almost feels like a professional environment. That does wonders for my professional development, my nerves, and my technical and musical chops.

In the past, before the internet, information was not as readily available as it is today. Twenty years ago, to look something up that you didn't know, you had to look in a book; no Google, no Wikipedia, no online journals, none of that. Before libraries were common and widespread, people would travel large distances to find books that contain the information they were looking for, though I guess some people still do this, just for very specific instances. Before books, you had to consult a very wise, knowledgeable person, a scholar, or a professor. Before that, I guess you had to figure it out yourself.

Over the years it has become easier to access to knowledge and information. This can be a good thing and a bad thing: people with motivation, drive and energy can push themselves forward at a higher rate than anyone before them, because they have more information to work with; at the same time, people overcome with laziness, or people who expect everything to be given to them can easily be tricked by the search engines analyzing volumes of endless knowledge into thinking that they don't need to work anymore.

I am always trying to remind myself to be the former instead of the latter. Not only would it be selfish of me to expect things to be given to me, and to show up with ease, it would be a waste of the efforts and work of all of those before me if I didn't do something with it. My goal is to take what others have found and experienced before me, to fuse it all together, and make something beautiful to inspire the next generation of people after me. It would just make me feel nice if, because I existed and had a positive influence on society, the world was a better place after I left than before I arrived.

Information is readily available. Knowledge is widespread. Experience is abundant. Make the most of it.

M