Then and Now

I was supposed to be a 3rd generation Marine. The Marine Corps was supposed to be my ticket to music school. Then as a senior in high school, I was diagnosed with hemophilia so I couldn't serve in the Marines. Instead of school I focused on the California ska band I played in, and we toured around the West—it was a party scene all the time. I loved performing. I never thought I'd become a high school band teacher. Never.

According to statistics, with my background, I should have ended up dealing drugs, in prison or dead, not in college. Our band's music scene ended, and I was working in a movie theater when I decided to serve an LDS mission and was sent to Ogden.

After serving I enrolled in SLCC with plans to earn a communications degree, but my plans shifted when I spent a summer performing with SLCC's marching band and then teaching Bingham High School's marching band. After these experiences, I knew what I wanted. A few courses shy of my AA here at SLCC, I transferred to the U of U and earned a bachelor's degree in music education.

I'm now the director of bands at Mountain Ridge High School. I love my job. I get to be continuously engaged in music, be creative and around young musicians developing their talent.

"According to statistics, with my background, I should have ended up dealing drugs, in prison or dead, not in college."

Advice

Don't be afraid to take classes that challenge you. And don't avoid a class because you think it is going to be a waste of time—it just might be what sends you on a new trajectory, the one you are supposed to be on. Be open to a new path—there's not always a straight line to the things that inspire you.