Accidentally Winning

When I was in seventh grade, I was the least popular kid school; that year I decided to run for student council.

* * * Good Idea/Bad Idea * * *

I don’t have any recollection to why I decided to run for class representative. It’s possible someone signed me up as a joke. I do remember I had to give a speech in front of my homeroom class, and I was terrified.

The night before my big speech, I decided to put my best skill forward: I drew a giant poster. Specifically, it was a giant picture of a tiger that said something like “Vote for Vial.”

It was a pretty sweet tiger, if I do say so myself, and it had nothing to do with my school (our mascot was a falcon) and nothing to do with student council. I spent all afternoon and night on that poster, way more time than on my speech.

The next day, I stood up in front of the class, put my giant poster on the blackboard, and stuttered my way through my speech in front of 20-30 peers. I have no recollection of what I said. All I remember is the Q and A segment.

“Did you draw that poster yourself, or did your parents do it?”

“I drew it,” I answered.

I won the vote by a landslide.

* * * Consequences * * *

I could go on to share how I was the worst student council representative to ever hold the position, but instead, I will share the consequence to accidentally winning.

You see, no one told me one giant responsibility of all student council members was to dance with another member from stu-co in front of the whole middle school.

Student council had to introduce “slow dancing is cool” and break the ice at the first junior high dance.

Makes sense, right? Student council is a popularity contest, so have the cool kids lead the first dance. But I wasn’t cool. I was the dork who drew a poster of a tiger.

Poor, Megan Andrus.

Megan was the girl who had to dance with me in front of the entire middle school.

I almost didn’t go out there.

A group of boys grabbed me, pushed me out into the center of the gymnasium, and then pointed and laughed as Megan and I danced to Bryan Adam’s “Everything I Do” along with the rest of student council in pairs.

I regretted drawing that damn poster for 4 minutes and 17.

(Fun fact: Megan went on to become a model in California.)

* * * Dancing with Music Decisions * * *

Shortly after this cripplingly embarrassing experience, I decided to play guitar. And many years later, I decided to perform songs in front of people.

Throughout my music career, many people have told me try out for American Idol or the Voice. I’ve always struggled to come up with an answer why I won’t do this.

One reason is I feel like I’m a limited singer who simply loves to write songs.

Thinking back to seventh grade, I think I’ve found another answer: What if I actually fooled the judges and had to go on TV?

There are always consequences to accidentally winning, and I’d rather not be pushed into the center of the gymnasium, again.

* * *

(I was inspired to share this after reading Seth Godin’s blog today, and Amy Petty’s blog last year.)