Weekly Wisdom

“There is no harm in being afraid. The only harm is in doing what Fear tells you. Fear is not your master! Laugh in his face and he will run away.” - George McDonald.

                  This quote was a breath of fresh air for me this week. I am taking viola lessons this semester and therefore I must perform for a jury, the music lesion equivalent of a final. For people that have a lot of experience playing in front of people this process is no sweat because it is literally only five minutes of your life. For me however, I have an enormous amount of stage fright when it comes to performing in front of people—not to mention people that are evaluating me. For the past couple weeks I have become increasingly worried and stressed about my upcoming performance…until I saw this quote. For me it is my jury performance next week, for you it may be another test, an interview, or trying something new, but whatever it is this quote applies beautifully. So what if we are afraid? If you don’t show it, no one will know it, and you will get over it. In case this quote is not enough to help you with your fears, my viola instructor also told me something like this:

"Don’t be afraid of mistakes because they are bound to happen. If you don’t think about the mistakes you could make, you will make fewer mistakes."

I really appreciated hearing both of these quotes, because now I have the courage to walk into my lesson today and just play—no worries, no fears. This is what I hope all of you can be inspired to do as well. If you are stressed about a test I encourage you no to think about it so much. Study what you can; take frequent study breaks; and on the day of the test you shouldn’t stress because there is nothing left for you to do but take the test. If you have an interview you are fearful for, my words to you are to be yourself. No amount of preparation will prepare you for the moment you walk in the door, so if you forget everything about what to do in interviews just remember to be yourself. And I can’t forget about those of you who are just afraid to try something new. The more you think about it, the more you are going to say ‘forget about it’. If you try it and don’t like it, you never have to do it again; but if you try it and love it, you discover something new about yourself. Whatever your fears, whatever your reasons, you need to face fear. You need to “laugh in his face and he will run away”.

-Margaret Gruhler