You Never Know...

Hall of Fame recording artist Billy Joel credits his high school music history teacher for his success.  As a sophomore at Hicksville High School, his music history teacher, Mr. Chuck Arnold was inspired by the skill Billy Joel had playing the piano. As Billy Joel describes it, one day while fooling around on a piano, playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23, Mr. Arnold noticed his talent and made a very simple comment.  He told Billy Joel that with his talent, he could be a professional musician. Previous to that moment, Billy Joel had never thought about music that way and credits Mr. Arnold for giving him his start in the music industry. Moral of this story:  You never know the impact your words can have on a student.

Until next time...

TGIF

How many times do we hear the acronym TGIF?  Originating in 1965 with the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s, it was popularized and shortened to TGIF in 1978 with the release of the movie “Thank God It’s Friday”.  Now the acronym is popularized in many ways, but it still stands for the same thing. It stands as a banner message to signify the end of a grinding week and the beginning of the weekend. We have all heard the message of TGIF and we all understand the sentiment.  That being the case, I would challenge you to use TGIF as a time to reflect.  Instead of seeing TGIF as a phrase to celebrate the end of the week, see it as a few words:  Trust, Grateful, Inspired, Fun. By plugging in those words we can then ask ourselves the following questions in reflection of the week:

T - What did you Trust in this week?

G - What were you Grateful for this week?

I - What Inspired you this week?

F - What was Fun this week?

Of course, the ‘What’ can always be interchanged by ‘Who’.  By framing the acronym into these simple questions, one can completely change their state of mind and become more reflective.  Have a phenomenal weekend...Go PUPS! (cue Cranberries, Linger).

Until next time...