Hats and Where You Got Them

Before jumping into this post, I want to announce that I am now proudly listed on the Erfurt Music Resource! Be sure to check out this awesome website, it's chock full of excellent music therapy resources (which now includes your's truly!)

Been quiet around here lately. I've been crazy busy with everything. This week, I begin taking over half the caseload, which means planning whole sessions rather than just a few activities per session. This means a whole lot more time management for me during sessions, which is tough for me.

I visited Tallahassee this weekend, which meant 10 hours on the road this weekend. This let me catch up on one of my favorite podcasts, The Music Therapy Round Table. In episode 8, Rachel, Michelle, and Kimberly discuss the many "hats" music therapists wear (clinician, researcher, advocate, etc.)

Listening to this, my mind began to wander, as it is known to do when facing 300 miles of highway (don't worry Mom, I was still focused on the road), and I came up with this question: What non-academic life experiences have taught you skills that you never realized would be so useful in the future?

For me there are two. One would be my most recent job, and the other would be my garage band in high school.

During my last two years at FSU, I worked as a tour guide for the University. I gave countless tours to prospective students and their families. Each tour lasted about two hours, and I probably gave well over 100 of them while I was employed there.

I loved this job for many reasons. Of course there's the obvious reason, I was getting paid to talk about how great The Florida State University is! Pretty easy for me. But there's also the amazing life skills it taught me, namely the ridiculous amount of public speaking experience it provided.

On a daily basis, I gave a two hour presentation to groups ranging from 1 person, to upwards of 40 people. Some of my internship supervisors have commented that I'm very comfortable jumping in front of the group and modifying my plans on the spot. I attribute my comfort level in front of groups to that job. I was even asked to sing the FSU fight song on the spot in front of the entire group multiple times. Being in front of groups doesn't raise my anxiety levels at all, and I'm very thankful for this.

The other experience that taught me skills I never knew would be so useful is the experience of starting a band in high school. Around my sophomore year, I started a ska band with six of my best friends. We called ourselves "Go Play in Traffic." I played saxophone in the group. Our band was more successful than most of us had ever imagined it would be. We headlined local shows, packed venues, recorded a full length CD and sold around 500 copies of it, even went on a week-long tour! I met so many people through this experience. It was an absolute blast and it will always be the defining memory of my high school years.

But it also taught me some amazing business skills! It really was like running a small business. We had to manage the money we made. Once we made a handful of money, we decided to invest it in some stickers with our logo on it. That in turn made us more money. We took this money and invested it in t-shirts with our logo on it. This brought in more money. So we got more shirts. Then we started saving money to record our CD. We got 1000 copies printed and made more money off these. So we saved up again for our tour. This is where I learned first hand about investments and profits and how this fits into running a business.

We recorded our CD by ourselves in our drummer's bedroom, and this is where I learned about types of microphones, how to use recording software, mixing and mastering a recording, and how to maximize the quality of a recording.

I don't know how it happened, but the responsibility of designing and ordering merchandise fell into my lap as well. I learned how to use high quality design software that I've used countless times since. I made the designs for the shirts and stickers and assisted my band-mates with designing our album art as well. I made some pretty cool looking logos, if I do say so myself.

I learned some great song writing skills as well, and more team work skills than I could ever imagine. Time and time again, I'm reminded about how helpful this experience was. And at the time, I thought I was just playing some rock and roll with my friends.

So what non-academic experiences have proved more useful than you could have ever imagined? I'd love to hear your stories.