A few years ago in one of my doctoral program classes the professor asked us to write three I am statements that were positive descriptors or identifiers.  We went around three times, saying “I am _____________” on each cycle. I’ve long forgotten what my I am statements were then, but I now repeat the exercise with the first meeting of the Senior Seminar class, a group of music majors in their final year of college.  The ritual runs the risk of awkwardness but the students never fail to make the room resonate with honesty and wisdom.

While the I am exercise can help nurture community in a classroom,  I’m also intrigued by the individual act of embracing the I am as preparation for practice. When we practice whatever it is we practice, whether a musical art or another art such as the auto restoration my spouse loses himself in, we bring everything we are. Naming the I am may mean it lingers through the practice, allowing the mind to mull over all matter of things while at work.  Sometimes, naming the I am helps us set what and who we are aside so we can proceed with the task at hand with a clear mind.  Both — the mulling over and the setting aside — seem to be important parts of my practice.

An I am collage from my students follows.  I love finding out who they are as I keep finding out who I am.

I am…

creative, realistic, a brother/part of a family, silly and therefore good at making people laugh, a creator of art in many forms, an extreme Googler, a Christ-follower, excited about understanding ideas, a small-town guy, a person who finds deep meaning in artistic expressions of the human experience, a runner, happy when working hard on something I am really passionate about, intuitive, chill, careful, a passionate performer, just the right size to be myself, a fairly stereotypical middle child, philosophical, joyful, able to do a single task for extended periods, energized by interactions with others, my body — I trust and care for my body, enthusiastic about my relationships with people, a singer, careful, a fighter, less introverted than I used to be, invested in peacemaking, caffeinated, an adventurer, inquisitive, a musician, generally joyful, a very hard and very conscientious worker, passionate about bringing potential out of others, a lover, wonderfully scatter-brained, an athlete, laid-back, interested in self-reflection, excited for the unknowns of my future, a hard worker, a lover of laughter, a child of God.