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"Master Your Craft" - Student Commencement Speech

The students of the Class of 2024 were represented by Ian Claar ,who graduated with honors from our Band Instrument Repair Program. Ian came to аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½± from Warsaw, Indiana, because his high school band directors noticed his interest in fixing things and recommended the college. After graduation he has a job lined up with Sweetwater Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here is the text of the inspiring speech Ian wrote and delivered at Commencement on May 10, 2024.

Master Your Craft

by Ian Claar

I have a very talented friend and mentor named Matthew Alexander back home in Indiana who I still stay in contact with to this day. Most days it's sending random Facebook reels back and forth, and other days it's us comparing machined parts we just got done making. This man has 30+ years of machining knowledge in his noggin so it's nice being able to go to him with ANY question I might have.  

But, amidst all of those videos and questions, there's one thing he has always said that sticks out the most. "Master your craft." 

I never really paid attention to that or thought about what it truly means, but recently it's really sunk in. 

"Master your craft" -- put in real time and effort into what you've spent the last year studying and working on. Whether it's Band Instrument Repair, guitar repair, string repair, nursing, and so much more, master it. Be the one that people seek out. Be the one whose name is said more often than all others when your trade or profession is mentioned. 

Most people just fall into the same old routine of what they do and never expand their knowledge or learning, so it's your job to be different! 

The definition of learning is "the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught." 

Many don't realize how important learning is. They hate it because they think of it as being told what to do, being forced to change, or because they simply don't want to sit and listen to begin with. But how can you get better without learning? 

To me, learning is one of the most important things you can do. 

You physically can't master your craft without learning more about your trade. 

We often take for granted the ability to learn, but being able to learn is a beautiful opportunity in and of itself. Someone once said "If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you." The more and more you learn, the more of a person you, yourself will become, the further you'll go, the greater you'll be. And it all comes back to mastering the craft that you've set out to learn. 

And, with that being said, don't expect it to be easy. What do you take more pride in, something that you easily just learned or something that you spent many hours and or years learning? Nothing ever truly comes easy, that's one of the amazing parts of life. That we have the ability to truly achieve what we're going for! Whatever we set our minds to, we can actually go out and accomplish it.

Everything just takes "doing." So, go out and do. Go out and achieve those goals that you've set into place. Go out and make something of yourself. Go out and Master Your Craft!