Hello!
I’m wrapping up my third week as a music therapy intern and I am starting to feel more comfortable with Springfield as well as with my internship. I have the chance to work with so many different people at multiple sites and I feel truly blessed that I am in this environment surrounded by respected and talented professional music therapists! Even though this week I started to get more involved in the students’ sessions and I have loved every minute of it, I’ve encountered some struggles that I am slowly working through.
Confidence. It’s an issue that I have been dealing with recently. Like most other musicians and people in this world, I strive to be perfect in everything that I do and when I am not perfect or succeed in doing something, I lose confidence. This often leads to me not being able to progress or learn a new skill. I realized this week that nobody is perfect and I will never be perfect; it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.
I often lose my confidence when I’m singing. When I sing in my car, I sing like no one is watching because literally, no one is watching. But when I sing in front of my supervisors or in other places, I lose my confidence because I am afraid of sounding terrible, which actually makes me more nervous. This in return ruins my breathe support and creates an airy sound and the cycle continues.
If I just think to myself that nobody is perfect and sing like I sing in the car with all the confidence in the world, I can accomplish amazing things. Confidence is an issue for me, but it doesn’t have to be a detrimental. I know that I have the skill set required to sing as well as to be an effective music therapist; I just have to believe in myself and have CONFIDENCE. I’ve started to work on it this week and will continue to do so throughout my internship. I’m excited to look back at this moment six months from now and see how much I’ve grown.
Thank you for reading!
-Sammy Springer
