Week 4: Comment to Mike's post on Jobs speech

Mike’s Post:
Watching TV last night, I caught the end of a nightly news program on ABC. They were talking about their ‘person of the week’. Well, this week was Steve Jobs. The story began with the announcement of the release of the new iPad that will revolutionize the netbook. The story went on to tell of Jobs’ beginning, getting fired from Apple, returning, his involvement with Pixar, and of course his inventions of iPods and iPhones. They showed a clip from the YouTube clip we were to watch this week in class, his commencement speech at Stanford from 2005. While re-watching the speech, my wife said aloud how much see loved that speech too. I went back and watched it again. It is so inspiring and Steve is such a magnificent speaker. It made me think about what I have done and how I became to be a music teacher. I never thought I would be where I am today. I was an athlete never playing an instrument until my sophomore year in college. I went into college a psychology major and left with a degree in music composition. Still never thought I would teach. Really had no idea what I was going to do, but Steve’s words described it all, “Have the trust that the dots will connect in your future. That the dots will connect to something gives you the strength to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path”. I often sit and reflect to how I got to where I am today and what will the future bring. I try to instill this in my students, that if you follow your heart and trust yourself, your drive will lead you down the right path, even if your parents do not approve like mine did. What will the future hold for any of us? I cannot imagine. But I do know I will be sitting outside on a warm summer night ten years or so from now thinking how did it all happen.

Source

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA&feature=player_embedded#

Mike,

I saw this and admit that it just seemed like a good inspirational speech but I really didn’t think about what it meant to my life until I read your post. I took a few moments to reflect on my travels though life and realized that I have spent so much time stressing about things and wondering what would happen if I wasn’t proactive. I guess I always feared being stuck in an unhappy place or of not having control of my destiny. (which is kind of strange because I’ve never really had any prolonged unhappy time in my life) This might play a part in why I will end up with 5 graduate degrees ☺ (keeping my options open and creating possibilities for the future). Instead of thinking “what if” I should have trusted that the path would lead me where I am supposed to be. Like you, I never imagined myself teaching. (and truthfully, nobody else did either) As I have evolved as a person and have experienced many different paths along the way, I found that I want to share. So, the dots will connect. When I look back I see they have. I just need to look forward and trust that they will. Thanks for your heartfelt reflection. Like you, I always feel inspired when I hear Jobs speak.