Augustana Essay

Here is the essay I have been promising to some of you. I finally have it closed to finished. They called me tonight to remind me they were still missing it but every thing else looks amazing they said! ~Kelli J. Lair

I have done many things within the short eighteen years of my life. Some I have been extremely proud of and others not so much. All of my actions have changed me in one way or another, but I consider joining the faith based drumming group, Sheltered Reality, one of the best and most beneficial decisions in my life.
I decided to join the group the weekend before starting my junior year. I had seen the group perform many times and loved their message of success. They have six steps to success that they teach to their audiences and want each member to apply to their lives: take a chance, never give up, be willing to do whatever it takes, believe in yourself, be a friend, and believe in God.
I went to my first practice and fell in love with the drumming. Two days after that practice, I went to watch my site play at a show, but little did I know I would be playing! After the show was finished, I was able to talk with site members and start making friends. One of these friends was a girl named Amanda. We did not know that we would soon become like sisters and be inseparable, even after one of us moved over a thousand miles away.
The next weekend I started to travel to more shows with Amanda, and making friends across Minnesota and Iowa. I had found my niche in the world: performing with Sheltered Reality. Three months after I joined the group, Steve Schlosser, the executive director and founder and I were having a conversation. He brought up starting a practice site in Northwood, Iowa in order to reach more kids in northern Iowa. He decided that I had learned enough in my three months that he would place me in charge of the site!
It would be a challenge, but I was willing to take it on. We did not have a sound system, and most of the kids were really young, so it was my turn to learn how to teach with few resources. We had to use an iPod dock for music and chairs as drums for most of our kids. It was a learning experience teaching children fourth grade and younger how to play songs. It has taught me patience with young children and to break concepts down to an understandable level for elementary age kids.
Steve also thought it was time for me to take another step in my Sheltered Reality journey; it was time for me to start leading shows on my own. Every show that we do has someone lead the drumming and do most of the talking. I had been telling the story of the day or teaching the steps of success at shows, but I had never done anything like this. My first show on my own was scary, but the friends I've made were there to support me the entire time. It may not have been the best show Sheltered Reality has ever had, but it was a true learning experience.
In the fourteen months I have been in this group, I have gained many close new friends, met hundreds of new people from across the United States, led multiple practices in different states, and traveled almost 3,000 miles to perform in a total of fifty shows. Through all of it, I have gained new skills and made many contacts I can use the rest of my life. I feel joining Sheltered Reality was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I hope to continue participating in the group throughout college and possibly the rest of my life. I have learned to apply the steps to success to my own life and how to teach others do the same. My dream is to one day travel around the country with Sheltered Reality to spread our message. I hope to be a positive adult role model to kids just like Steve Schlosser has been to me.