SPOILER ALERT (Kung Foo Panda)
I have spent a lifetime playing music, but in the back of my mind there was always self-doubt. I was always worried about how I sounded. I was over critical of what I wrote or performed. Sure, I would have a smile on my face, and to the audience I looked like I was full of confidence. I was so terrified of making a mistake, it took away the reason for doing it in the first place. The love of music. All that changed after watching Kung Foo Panda. The movie was about a young panda named Poe; he dreamed constantly about kung fu. He worked at his father’s noodle restaurant, while waiting to be entrusted to learn the secret ingredient to his father’s noodle recipe. When this out of shape nobody, with zero kung fu skills gets appointed Dragon Warrior by Grand Master Oogway, everyone assumes it’s a joke; including Poe. Self-doubt consumed Poe, so during his darkest hour, his father told him there was no secret ingredient in his noodle soup.
“To Make something special, you just have to believe it’s special.” (Stevenson, Osborne)
After that, Poe believed in his abilities and became the Dragon Warrior that Grand Master Oogway always knew he was. That was a great lesson for my confidence. I chucked self-doubt out the window and became more proficient in my writing and performances.
Works Cited
Kung Fu Panda. Dir. John Stevenson Mark Osborne. Perf. James Hong. 2008.