Meet Megan Williams | Music Educator and Arts Administrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Megan Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Megan, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
I choose to answer in the form of a list, because I love lists and because writing out things that make me happy is one of the things that makes me happy. These are in no particular order, and have, and will continue, to evolve over time.
1. Reading. Books, articles, other people’s lists, my own lists.
2. People. People who ask curious questions and genuinely want to know the answer. People who are the same person no matter the group of people they are with. People who listen like Steve from Blues Clues when he asks how we are all doing.
3. A good latte.
4. And sometimes, even a bad latte.
5. Playing music. Even when I’m bad at it, or it is a challenge. I’m particularly not that great at complex rhythms, and even though I’m still working at it, it is fun.
6. Ideas. I love to brainstorm. I have to work hard at details. I’m the person who can come up with things, and then hopefully have other people who can help make it happen.
7. Kids. My own. Most others. Kids are blunt, creative, funny, disgusting, and usually more excitable than most adults.
8. Giving gifts. Not homemade gifts – we have Etsy for that. But gifts that I can sit and think about what a person might like and try to do something they’ll appreciate.
9. Dogs. Most dogs. Never cats.
10. Working with groups of people who appreciate each other and can balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
11. Listening to music while driving.
12. Helping people.
13. Acknowledging the good things that other people do. I love that.
14. Being near bodies of water but not necessarily in them.
15. Walking places with others.
16. Sight-reading new music.
17. When either of my children wakes up in the morning and they come find me.
18. Cleaning to loud music.
19. When people text out of the blue to say hello.
20. Going to new destinations with my family.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m really lucky and blessed and all of those happy words to get to teach woodwind students, travel to area schools as a clarinet instructor, work as the Community Engagement and Development Coordinator for our state music education organization, and work as the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta. AND I get to work with some awesome colleagues at Wesleyan School and their marching band.

I was a classroom teacher for a long time, and due to some crazy circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, I ended up doing what I do now. I don’t know how long this period will last, but I do consider myself truly lucky to get to perform and teach, as well as get to work with educators and our state music organization to help others. It’s an immense privilege that I don’t take for granted.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There are just too many things I would want do. I would start off every day by having a coffee at Spiller Park in Druid Hills, and if we wanted to really indulge we would have to go to Revolution Doughnuts at least once. We would also go for so many walks on the Beltline, and we would find all the fun greenspaces in Atlanta to take our dogs. We would spend an inordinate amount of time at Little Shop of Stories, our favorite bookstore. We would see a musical at the Fox Theatre, and while we’re wandering around town we would try to find as many of the Tiny Doors as we can. We would definitely eat at Hen Mother Cookhouse – even though it’s a little bit of a drive from Atlanta it is WORTH IT. We would go see some live music or a comedy show at the Variety Playhouse, or go see a college football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and we would definitely eat some dumplings at the North China Eatery on Buford Highway.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Wow. It’s hard to narrow anything like this down to one person, or group of people. There have been so many people whose love and friendship and guidance have helped me over the years. Many teachers and colleagues who have consistently led me down the right path.

I think in this instance, I’m going to “shoutout” a book. The book is called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller. I’ve read this book many times, and I really believe that the book was a catalyst for change in how I think about music, relationships, life, day-to-day tasks, and professional aspirations. In the book, Donald Miller goes into detail about his own person struggles with depression, failed relationships, and generally feeling like what he was doing didn’t “matter.” Ultimately, Donald Miller realizes (and helped me to realize) that he wasn’t living a very good “story.” If his life were a movie, it would not be a very compelling one, and no one would leave the theater raving about the great conflict and resolution of his life.

I don’t necessarily believe that life has to be full of conflict in order to create meaning. But I do believe, and have believed for some time – probably since reading this book – that my life has to be compelling specifically to me. I have to wake up every day and deal with myself, and I have to also deal with what I have decided to do. The idea of our lives being a “story,” and needing to be a compelling one drives me to be excited about small things, to say “yes” as often as I can, to try and be a good spouse and friend and mother, and it helps me to see things as an adventure instead of as a series of tasks I need to complete. “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” led me to be more introspective and decisive, and I do believe that we should all be trying to live a “good story.”

I often wonder if I was living a good story before, and just didn’t realize it. Our story’s value may really be based on our perspective and not necessarily a change in action. Here are a few parts of the book that really impacted me:
“The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is ‘Do not fear.’ It’s in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn’t let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”

“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”

“To know there is a better story for your life and to choose something other is like choosing to die.”

Website: https://www.mysoatlanta.org

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-williams-0494647