What's Stopping You?

I had a very exciting week. I went to San Antonio to play with the All-State Band, and let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. To have a gigantic band of 160 be perfectly in-tune gives me goosebumps, and we could play with such power as to make other musicians' jaws drop. When I left, however, I went to a retreat in New Braunfels right afterward, and I was in a very bad way. To have to leave such a great thing was hard, and I wished to have stayed there forever playing music. And then I asked myself, Why don't I? What's to stop me from becoming a hermit and playing music all day if that's what makes me happiest? I decided that wasn't the best life ever, but I'd be a masterful musician if I did. And that's how masters are created, I realized. It's the lifelong dedication to one art that produces the awe-inspiring works that we always gush over. It's important right now for me to be in school so that I can get a broad knowledge base and be educated, etc., but after I just want to dedicate myself to what makes me happy. That's what Steve Jobs did, didn't he? Maybe I'll dedicate myself to Java development. And maybe I won't. . . .