I hear the sounds of laughter and singing as I walk into the choir room. Seeing me, the students stop their chatter, move into their assigned spots, and stand at attention, waiting for rehearsal to begin. Sitting at the piano with a warm smile, I start to play some simple exercises to warm up their voices before jumping into their prepared repertoire. Seeing these students sing for pleasure and enjoyment is what I want to see for the rest of my life. This moment in front of these students was an epiphany of my future career. Before this moment, I was lost and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

I always knew that I wanted to become a teacher, but I didn’t know what I wanted to teach. After some time, I gained a great respect for music and thought I could tie it into a career. Still filled with uncertainty, I decided to take an independent study during my senior year of high school with the choir director. In this independent study, I would be directing my own choir. This involved picking music for the students to sing, creating a rehearsal schedule, and teaching them the notes, rhythms, dynamics, and other little important things that music teachers do to create music. Preparing throughout high school to become a band director, many teachers and students alike questioned why I was taking up the task of directing a choir. In response I said that singing has always been an interest of mine and this opportunity would be a nice test run to see if I had what it took to lead a musical ensemble. The overall journey of this independent study was like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with its fortes and pianissimos, allegros and adagios and the joyous voices of the choir soaring to the end. In the end the choir had a magnificent performance at the concert, giving me a perspective of true success.

After the concert, I realized what success really was. Before, money and social status came to mind when thinking about success, but after being a part of this choir my definition of success changed. Success is making good decisions that lead to great opportunities. Success is not something that can be bought in a grocery store though. Just as life comes with death, success comes with failure. While directing the choir, I came across a handful of challenges.

The first big challenge with this choir was learning how to play the piano. Unlike in band when the instrumentalists took home the music and learned it on their own, the choir at my high school learned the music from the choir director plunking out the notes on the piano. The reason for this is that not everyone knows how to play the piano, therefore making it harder for them to learn their parts. After some time in a practice room and some help from some friends who played piano, I eventually picked up enough technique to be confident in front of my students. In order for them to succeed, I needed to be able to use rehearsal time to teach them better singing technique instead of teaching myself how to play the piano. Along, with the confidence challenge on piano came the way I had to carry myself in front of them. All of us were in high school, so I needed to spend extra energy gaining their respect as a teacher, instead of a friend. It was difficult telling my friends when they were wrong or when they needed to get their act together because I would sing with some of them during the school day. In the end, they respected me as a teacher when I was teaching and a friend when there was no rehearsal.

The other big challenge was deciding who was going to sing in this choir. From the start I decided to make it open to everyone and anyone who wanted to join because this independent study was not only a great opportunity for me, but those in the choir. This would give those who were in choir as a class during the school day as well as those who could not fit choir into their schedule an opportunity to sing with another group of people in a friendly environment. At first I decided to choose easier music because I underestimated their abilities. The majority of members were freshman and I was not confident of their technique and overall singing ability. I did not know what range they could sing in, how rhythmic they were, if they could sing in tune, or even which voice part they sang. Throughout the three months of rehearsals the group encountered plenty of challenges. There were issues of maturity, students showing up to rehearsals on time, the amount of time we had to rehearse, the balance and blend of the group, learning and remembering to sing the correct notes, and expression and interpretation of the music. All of these aspects are things the average music teacher thinks about and tries to teach every day. After all of the sore throats, wrong notes, and long hours of practice, the students put on an amazing performance, giving me great pride to call myself their teacher. Knowing that I gave them the tools to create beautiful music gives me a great perspective on what it means to be a success. To be happy you don’t necessarily need to be a success in terms of wealth or social status, but you need to be happy with yourself; only then will you see yourself as a success.