This past weekend my daughter went to auditions for middle school band.  She’s a fifth grader, who a month ago, had no interest whatsoever in being in band next year.  She was set on taking the ‘exploratory wheel’ course, where she would get to try different elective classes in 6-week intervals.  Not a bad choice.  But her big sister let her know that if she was interested at all in band, that she would probably want to go ahead and take it as a 6^th grader, and not have to be in beginning band as a 7^th grader (with all those 6^th graders –ew!).  So… she took her sister’s advice, and set her heart on being a percussionist. 

I’ve always thought she has pretty good rhythm, and as a percussionist she would get to play the xylophone (following in her mom’s footsteps – I was excited about re-living my band memories vicariously through her).  We showed up for tryouts on Saturday.  The cafeteria was full of tryout stations – woodwinds, brass and the highly esteemed percussion area – to which she made an instant beeline.  As we waited for her turn,   I could tell she was nervous.  We watched as the kids before us tapped out rhythms and answered questions by the director.

Then it was her turn. 

She did a pretty good job overall, but I could tell her nerves were getting to her.  (She had also stayed up most of the night the night before – much to my chagrin – at a friend’s house, so she wasn’t at her best for her first ‘job interview.’ )  After an involved tryout, the director advised her to go try other instruments, and then come back to chat with him if percussion was still her first choice. 

She fortunately went and tried everything else– from the bassoon, to the tuba, to the trumpet and flute.  She was exceptionally good at the French horn, and thought for a brief time that was the instrument for her.  Until…..she tried the clarinet.   Apparently, she did an excellent job getting a good sound from the clarinet.  The instructor was very encouraging and expressive about her encouragement.  This is exactly the type of reaction that goes a long way with my daughter (apple/tree).  So, there we had it……she was going to play the clarinet!

On the way out from the two-hour tryout session, we talked about how interesting it was that she went into the tryouts with her heart set on percussion, and then decided clarinet was the instrument for her…..  and how life is like that, too.  Often, we think that we know what we want.  But it isn’t until the pursuit of that goal, that we find the thing that is really right for us.   But the first goal wasn’t a waste of time.  On the contrary, if we had never even tried for anything, we would have never known what other possibilities were out there.   

As an artist, I’ve found that this has been true in my career.  I didn’t always have the future planned, but it wasn’t until I tried making it as an artist, that I discovered other possibilities that were waiting for me. 

My daughter mentioned several times this weekend how glad she was that she went to the tryouts and tried all of the instruments.   I hope that this is the first of many things that she tries for….and discovers surprises about herself along the way.