bencox2I had a very guitar driven Sunday this weekend. I played 5 different times in 14 hours. Lemme tell ya, my fingers were a little sore after that!!

It started with the rehearsal for the church praise band just before 8 am, then went to the church service, followed closely by rehearsal for a performance that afternoon at the Reunion at the Front Porch stage, then said performance. The evening was capped off by rehearsal for a band I have put together for weddings and parties. (Yeah, it is kind of a shameless plug, huh?)

Why am I telling you all this? Because of a couple conversations I had during the day.

Sawyer Dodds plays drums in that church band, and while retrieving a forgotten piece of gear, we had a chance to talk. We discussed how tiring it can be to set up, rehearse, perform, tear down, and give everything you have for a show so the people you’re playing for can see how much the music you are performing means to you. Also the reason behind WHY someone would do that to themselves.

The other conversation, much later in the day, was more along the lines of why band, arts, and the other programs that aren’t athletic in nature in school are important.

Sometimes those who are not musically inclined don’t understand why musicians put themselves through the rigors of performance and rehearsal.

Or why the standards that some band and arts teachers set for their students are as high as they are.

I have to quote a movie here, because Tom Hanks said it SO much more eloquently than I ever could.

“It has to be hard. The hard is what makes it great. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.”

The struggle to produce something from nothing, to go from novice to beginner all the way up to Carnegie Hall performer, is a drive.

A spark.

A flame that refuses to be extinguished in the hearts of those who are driven to performance.

I’m not just talking about music students. I am also talking about the debate kids, the theater kids, the choir kids, and every other organization that has a place in high school that teaches something to students that can very rarely be learned from a book.

Passion.

The passion to be better than they were before they discovered that thing that inexplicably lights them up inside.

You’ve seen it, a kid that is so switched on they practically glow.

I have talked about the importance of music education before.

Recently, in fact.

However, this weekend brought it home to me that, had I not bugged my parents ceaselessly for a guitar so I could get the sounds from my head out in the open, I have no idea what I would have turned out to be.

I urge you, as a parent, help your children find their drive. Sports, music, acting, singing, writing, drawing, painting, dancing, something will eventually click and light them up so bright it will amaze you that it took so long for you to find it.

As a child, I challenge you: find that something you have to have in your life. That one thing that makes you “You”.

And then practice the heck out of that thing.

Show your passion. Even though it will be tough and some days you’ll want to give up because it gets hard.

Remember, though, if it wasn’t hard everyone would do it.

Ben Cox is the host of “Ben Cox in the Morning” weekday mornings from 6 to 9 on KQBZ, 96.9 FM in Brownwood Texas. He is the in-stadium voice of the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets football team and is also a mobile DJ for weddings, parties and the like. He can be contacted via this website.

The thoughts and comments reflected in this column are those of the writer alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Wendlee Broadcasting, or its affiliates.