Sometimes, the path forward through injury means hanging it up, and following a different path.

As hard as it is to fathom for most of us, that can be the best option for us.

Such was the case for Dr. Nate Botts.

As a fellow BYU alum and BYU trumpet legend, winner of the ITG classical and jazz trumpet competition, Nate came recommended to me for the show by several of my mentors.

When I started this show, I knew it would be imperative that I got people on who decided to take other paths than their instrument post injury, and that have found fulfillment in them.

Nate was in the middle of his dream career as a freelance trumpet player, when a tremor in his face slowly turned into focal dystonia.

In this episode he shares how he shares the difficulty of leaving a city and a career that he deeply loved behind, but how ultimately he has been able to find fulfillment in his current path as a music educator and pipe organist.

He shares the difficulty of navigating the advice of well meaning peers that are in all of our lives, but the difficulty in dealing with those situations.

He shares how he instills in his students to view music as an act of leisure rather than intensely as a career, and in doing so allow them to enjoy the process of music making even more.

This episode may be a wake up call for some of you, but I hope you can see that there are fulfilling paths out there, should choosing a different one outside your instrument is what you feel you need to do.

Keep on keepin’ on and trust the process!