President's Message
TAEA President's Message
May 2010
"Real success comes in small portions day by day. You need to take pleasure in life's daily little treasures. It is the most important thing in measuring success."
Denis Waitly, Motivational Speaker
"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Youth Art Month Celebration at the Texas State Capitol gave me an opportunity to stop and consider the whole concept of celebration. The students were excited and nervous as they came across the stage wearing a tentative smile and their best clothes to accept the YAM Medal of Honor as being named one of the best artists in the State of Texas. The parents, grandparents, and proud siblings, wandered through the exhibit looking for the work of "their own little artist". Photos were snapped, and hugs exchanged. Having traveled from the far corners of the state they came – each family drawn to Austin to celebrate the achievement of the student artist. Teachers came too. They were there to share in the moment, shake a hand, congratulate a student, meet a family member, and issue a well-deserved hug. What an important thing it is to take the time to celebrate - to suspend our daily rush to achieve the next goal, the next challenge, the next event. Our schedules have become so compressed that we rarely give ourselves the luxury to take a moment out to stop – take a long, slow breath, and breath in the heady and fulfilling fragrance of a job well done. By rushing on to the next event, we diminish the importance of the challenge that we have just met. We steal from it the significance that it has earned. We forget that we are human "beings" and morph into human "doings".
The YAM Celebration at the Capitol made me see and understand that I must live fully in the moment - to take the daily treasures and savor them. As a teacher, I must take time to appreciate and celebrate the small victories – those "ah ha" moments when a student makes a small breakthrough, that bit of excitement when a youngster discovers that yellow and blue really does make green. We need more celebrations in our lives. YAM kids and teachers pointed that out to me, and I appreciate the life lesson. I challenge you to take the time to celebrate all of the wonderful things that you do in your life as an art educator; the contributions that you make, the lives you impact, the beauty that you bring to the world. You deserve to take a bow. Take the time to celebrate.
Cheryl Evans
President