Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Right Choice

I always here my professors talk in class that we made the right choice coming to Ball State. However, Ball State was not my first choice school, nor second, third or fourth. When I was applying to colleges senior year Ball State was not even on the radar. My mom suggested that I apply to Ball State because that is where she went along with my aunts, uncles, grandpa and my great grandpa. I applied to  Penn State, Marquette, Northwestern, Arizona, Butler and of course Ball State. All in ranking order of where I wanted to go. I was looking into going into pre-med and hopefully onto becoming a dentist. Yea, me... a dentist. Crazy to think that I was going to go into that.


Out of all the schools I applied to, Northwestern was the only place I did not get into. Then the reason I decided to come to Ball State was that I did not get enough scholarships from the other universities to be able to pay for it. I would of loved to gone else where, but things happen for a reason.

Once I got to Ball State I started off in the medical field as a major; however, after one semester of classes I wanted to switch my major. Not because it was hard or I could not do it, but because I did not enjoy what I was doing. I received good grades in the math and science classes, but I still just could not see myself in this field.

So I looked around at different options for a new major. I first was looking to go into history, but after some research I found out that I would have to go to graduate school and even with that finding a job would be hard. I kept on looking for a major. I looked into education, but I was not 100% sure or not.

After talking to some friends and my parents I was suggested to look and try public relations. I really did not know what public relations was, what kind of jobs I was able to get, but I gave it a try. However, it was probably the best decision I have ever made.

After one semester of taking some journalism classes at Ball State I discovered that Ball State's public relations department was ranked in the top 10 in the nation. Ball State is also bringing innovation into the classroom and professors are teaching us ways to do things that are not being taught else where. Yesterday at the Ball State PRSSA meeting we had BLASTmedia come in and speak to our chapter. They said that Ball State is so ahead of all the universities in Indiana and most of the ones in the United States. Having them say that just put the biggest smile on my face and I wanted to get out into the work place right then and there.

I am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason and I am glad that I came to Ball State. If I went to any of the other schools I would be miserable because I would of not followed this same road I am going down now. Things can only get better from here!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Stay hungry, stay foolish

A month and a half ago I attended the Heritage Winterguard Contest. I was pumped that Carmel was going to be there, but after seeing them I was blown away by the show! Then last weekend I got to see them again; however, I want to share with everyone there show. There show was entitled: Stay hungry, stay foolish. There is music in the background, but there is a voice over of Steve Job's commencement speech to Stanford University. The speech is remarkable and then having it put to a winterguard show is ingenious!


Here is Steve Job's speech:

"Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.


My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.


I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish."

Isn't this a great speech! I am in love with it and the message it talks about. So to everyone out there...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Talk about HELL week

This week we all came back from a lovely spring break where we had time off to relax, do whatever and prep ourself for the final few weeks of the school year. WRONG! Yes, my spring break was amazing (in Cincinnati) and I am glad I had time off from school; however, I still was in school mode. This week I had four midterms/tests. I do not know what my professors were on or what, but "normally" midterms occur before break so we can enjoy our time off. Instead of that they decided to give us our exams the week after spring break. Their reasoning: we don't want to cram it in before break and you will have time to study over break. Right.....

So far this week I have had a paper due in my branding class over an article. I actually enjoyed reading and developing this paper. I feel it is always better writing a paper and putting application into what you learn than memorizing and spitting out what you read and were lectured. Next I had my Media Law & Ethics class. For everyone at Ball State, this is a class that you cringe at. The class itself is great. I love Dr. Supa because he is just full of information and knows what he is talking about. Ya, he might come off as a little rough around the edges, but he is prepping us for the real world. Not many profs do that. I know many people may disagree with me on this part, but I am sad to see Dr. Supa leave at the end of the year. I know we all move on to big and better things and I wish him the best. I am just glad I had a chance to have at least one class with him while at Ball State.
Back to HELL week and Media Law & Ethics. This midterm is always talked about by public relations and advertising majors about has insanely hard it is. I don't think I ever studied as much for a single test in my life as I did for this one. However, I think it paid off. Yes, it was hard, but not impossible to do well on. I believe that I did well on it and that I have nothing to worry about. What's done is done.

Then today I had a marketing test. I went over things during spring break, but everything got washed out because I was more focused on my Media Law & Ethics midterm. So the past two days I have been focusing on marketing. My professors test are not that hard, just a lot of memorizing. It took me about 20 to 25 mins on a 80 question test. Not bad, I guess.  Now that my marketing test is over I have to switch gears to my religious studies midterm tomorrow... Ya, it seems as there is no end. As soon as I get done with this blog entry and it straight to my notes and study study study. Once I get done with that exam tomorrow I will be home free... or will I? It may be the weekend after my exam tomorrow, but I have a exam in my publishing class Monday along with our postcard project due. So guess what I am doing this weekend!

Luckily I have some things to keep me sane this weekend. On Friday around noon my parents are coming down to Muncie. I have not seen them since Winter Break. Ya, crazy... With having work on weekends and other things to do I have rarely have time to drive 2.5 hours home and 2.5 hours back. So I am pumped for them to come down for a bit. I am going to see if they want to put gas in my vehicle too while they are down here. Duh, that is the main reason I want them to come down. Just kidding.
Also this weekend is the IHSCGA State Finals! Yes, I can I go without talking about something related to band, corps or guard. I am super pumped for this. I actually have never been to State Finals before. I performed in Divisional Finals, but never went to State Finals. Crazy! I am pumped to see some groups. In Class A I have been hearing amazing things about Lafayette Jeff. They are blowing people away. Of course I am pumped to see see Goshen and Angola again. Not only do they have great shows, but I know their guard directors too. In Open Class, the title will be a battle between Greenfield-Central and Greenwood. GC is doing amazing this year and is currently in first, but Greenwood is defending Open Class champs. Should be interesting. Then there is World Class. I am excited to see everyone: Carmel, Avon, Northview, Warren Central, Center Grove and Lawrence Central. First there is Carmel... OMFG! No one has touched them all year and should easily win. Their show is so unique, technical and just overall amazing. Yes, I know people hear Carmel and roll their eyes, but you have to give them respect. They have only had a guard for about seven or eight years and already rose to the top. They have a great chance at winning at WGI this year too! Then there is Avon. I have not seen them live. but I heard mix things about them. I am interested to see what they are all about this year. Next we have the surprise guard of the year, Northview. The past two years they have struggled and now they are kicking butt. Crazy what new staff and a new attitude toward things can do to a program. The show is full of energy. Words can not explain how amazing the show is. Ahh, I am getting excited about just talking about them! Northview right now is projected to place in the top six for sure and maybe go as high as number four! Then the rest of the guards: Warren Central, Center Grove and Lawrence Central all have great shows as well. It is a good chance thing year that all six Indiana World Guard might make WGI Finals. That would be awesome!

So I may be bogged down with tests to study for, but this weekend seeing my parents and going to State will sure balance things out.

Friday, March 11, 2011

More dreams... about drum corps. Learning Drill, Good Morning Wake-Up Calls, Ninja Pillow Fights, MOSABH!

So again last night I had a dream about drum corps... Ya, I know surprise surprise. This blog is about how I had an amazing, yet short, time with Capital Sound Drum & Bugle Corps. The dream I had was a mix of my experiences that I spent with Cap Sound.

My dream jumped around from camp to camp, but I am going to talk about the best/most memorable camp I had with Cap Sound. This camp was the first one we had the chance to start learning drill. It was either in March or April, I can not remember. We were all pumped even before camp started; however, the weather was not the best. Lovely cold and flurries all camp. That did not stop us! I thought it was funny because some of our corps members were from Enterprise, Ala. and not use to this lovely weather. They did not pack properly. People ended up swapping clothes for the weekend. Even people who didn't need help staying warm ended up switching and trading articles of clothing with others. Nothing like seeing guys having girls shorts on over their sweatpants and girls wearing a baggy male hoodie.

Probably one of the best part of Cap Sound, was Marc Gofstein. If you march corps you have that one staff member that does something special that makes being there worth wild and memorable. This camp we had history night and Marc explained about the corps. It was a little pep talk to get us motivated for the camp and for the season. The great thing about being at Cap Sound was that every night Marc went around after lights were out making sure we were in bed and heading to sleep. However, he talked, but with inspirational things to put us in a good mood so the next day starts off on the right foot. Then in the morning Marc was the one who woke us up. Over the years I have tried out, been with and marched with five corps and I have had no waking up experience like Cap Sound. Marc turned the gym lights on, but gym lights turn on slowly though. Marc walked around the gym whistling. Something about it just put you in a good mood. Way better than having someone turn the lights on and yelling "Good Morning ......" I will have to say I would do anything to have this experience again. I might sound a little crazy, but it is a great feeling.

At the same camp we started learning drill we also shared a housing site with the Madison Scouts. I was so excited that camp that "the big boys" were going to be there with us. We shared few meals with them, yet that was not the best part. I remember one night we were told by the staff how it was a tradition to have a pillow fight with the Scouts. We begged with our staff to talk to the Scouts staff to see if it was ok if we ambushed into their sleeping area and start a full out pillow fight. Things were set. About 30 mins after lights out for the Scouts we got ready. I remember Heather "Heathen" Cotney rounding our corps up. Sure explained the plan and how we had to be like ninjas. We even had to have our "proper" attire. It was pretty much our shirt wrapped around our heads. It was hilarious! After everyone was prepared, we attacked the Scouts. O, I forgot to mention... we were out numbered 4 to 1. This battle was so epic and so much fun! At one point I had to go rescue two girls in the corps as they were surrounded by eight or more Scouts. You should probably know, the Scouts are an all-guy corps. So I ran toward them yelling, "You don't beat up on girls, especially my girls!!!" After so battering back in forth we got both staffs involved. This went on for about an hour.




VS








                                       









However, all good things come to an end... right? Then in May we all found out Cap Sound was folding and was not going to field a corps for the 2008 season. It was heart crushing and probably one of the hardest things I had to cope with. However, all things happen for a reason and it has built me into the person I am today.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I can dream... right?

So the past week I have been having a lot of drum corps dreams. Each dream has been with a different corps and a different position. One of them I was marching with the Crossmen as a trumpet. Sweet dream, cool show and we even made Finals. Another dream I was marching with the Santa Clara Vanguard in the cymbal line. Talk about having a fantasy dream. In the dream I marched their 2011 show, The Devil's Staircase. Weird how I pictured everything with the drill, music, guard, etc. We shall see what they really do this year. Along with those two I had a dream I was back with my Thunder family for my age-out. I was drum major once again, all the staff was back, all the members (even the age-outs from 2010) and we were about triple in size. Not only did I get to march with them for my age-out, but we got to do a full tour and we medaled at Finals. That would of been probably the best moments of my life. A few days ago I had a dream that I was a guard member with Crown. It was my age-out and I got to march it with my good friend Matt Carfagna. Ever since 2009 we joked about how we are going to age-out together, be on the field at the age-out ceremony and just have an amazing season. Sadly enough that will not happen...





People that know I have marched ask me why don't I go march my age-out. Some of them know, some of them don't. Every time I have to explain to someone how I have to have an internship to graduate college I get really down and wish I can just fore-go the internship. I hear friends and other people who have/plan on marching talk about if they want to march. I am jealous of them. I would give up almost anything to march just one more year, especially my age-out. It is rare to find something this early in your life that you are passionate about. Some people it takes them there whole life figuring it out. However, I know that my degree and career are going to be more valuable in the long run.



Speaking of internships, I am waiting for my interview with Drum Corps International  (DCI) sometime this month. This would be that dream internship. For some people it might be interning in New York, Chicago, L.A., over seas, etc. For me, it is staying in my state and interning in Indianapolis. Many people don't know, but Indianapolis is the marching music capital of the world. If I could get this internship this summer with DCI it will mean so much to me. I would still be a part of drum corps even though I am not marching. Even though I would give up anything to march, I think this is the next best thing. I can get a jump start into my career and do so by being with an organization which means so much to me.  Fingers are crossed as I wait for my interview date to be set.

Friday, March 4, 2011

SPRING BREAK!

So everyone is leaving lovely Muncie to not so awesome destinations... BAH! However, I am still he at Ball State til 6:00pm as I work. I am getting so antzy and just want time to fly by. For my Spring Break I am heading to Cincinnati for the week. I can't wait!

Side note though, I have the honor of taking care of Kyle's1 (my roommate) fish. Kyle is going to Denver for break and he asked me last night. Great, right. Now I get to have an adventure down to Cincinnati with Paul. Yes... the fish is named Paul. Don't judge. So my goal this weekend is not to kill the fish. Fingers crossed! And yes, the fish is in a cup. It is how Kyle said to transport him...





Due to the fact I will be on break I do not know if I will have time to blog about this or not so I am just going to talk about it now. I want to wish the Northrop Winterguard good luck at Divisional Finals tomorrow. Last weekend I have the honor to follow my friend Holly, who is the director there, and her group. I had to take pictures of them for a project. Just being with them for a short amount of time makes me want to teach again... However, we have do accomplish things that are more important. AKA, school. Good luck you guys and I know you will have your "magical" place again just like Goshen. (www.ihscga.org)


Everyone have a good and safe spring break. See you in a week!