right and to a few hundred people in
Northern California
I’ve known as a teacher however to
several thousands of people worldwide
I’m also a punk rock artist and you know
the truth is is that I’m many other
things too I am a father I’m a son I am
a good dancer I’m a skater I’m a music
lover and we all are I mean we’re all
multifaceted individuals so why is it
that most of us when were introduced to
people define ourselves with one word
moreover why is that one word typically
associated with the career that we do
well maybe it’s just socially what we do
maybe it’s just easier saying hi I’m
so-and-so and I’m a blank well that
might make things really easy but for me
it’s kind of difficult because I don’t
really know how to introduce myself a
lot of times I’ll say I’m Chris cheryan
and I don’t really know what to say a
lot of times it depends on the setting
that dictates what I say when I
introduce myself but that’s probably not
unusual for me I’m sure most of you have
felt the same way as a high school
teacher I get an opportunity to know
some of my students for four years of
their high school career and in some of
them I get to see them really blossom in
at the very very talented actors oh yeah
I didn’t mention I’m a high school drama
teacher well-known for doing punk rock
artwork teach drama I am a trained art
teacher but I haven’t taught art for a
number of years kind of things change
and you kind of get sidetracked a little
bit but getting back to my students um I
do get the opportunity to know students
really really well in four years and I
see a lot of them really blossom into
these wonderful performers and its
really really we’re roaring and you’d
probably think that because of that I’d
be turning out Nicholson’s into neros
SpaceX and Bates like nobody’s business
but the truth is is that a lot of my
students graduate don’t go into acting
and never set foot on a stage again and
to me that’s kind of heartbreaking it
doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense
does it I mean you spend four years of
your life working
really hard at something something you
love to do and then graduation you walk
away from it completely never coming
back to it that doesn’t make a whole lot
of sense until I start asking some my
students well what are you planning on
doing after graduation and a lot of them
will tell me or you know it’s been fun
mr. sherry but you knows Tom too good
sirs you know some sort thing about my
career
and I got it I understand you’ve got to
pay your bills an acting can be a
notoriously dicey career path to go into
but if you spent that much time working
and devoting yourself to something
leaving it completely it just kind of
hurts
a lot of my kids when they graduate
they’re heartbroken their childhood is
ended and it’s time to start getting
serious and getting serious for them
means walking away from your passions
and only going towards your career it’s
almost like those two things are
mutually exclusive like you don’t have
time to do both and that really really
bothers me you know we’ve all seen the
statistics I mean we all know that the
electives that hook kids and get them
excited that’s the reason most my kids
show up each day coming to my class
coming to an art class coming to a music
class those are the things that really
bring us joy on our school days and so
isn’t it pretty obvious that if it holds
that much value in your formative years
in school that after school it still has
some value of course it does and you
just close the door on that doesn’t
really make any sense I mean it’s the
electives that get kids excited I mean I
love the electives when I was in school
the things that I excelled at and I
really wanted to do and that certainly
was the case with art a picture six year
old little boy sitting in his underoos
two inches from the TV screen on
Saturday morning eaten a bowl of plain
cereal and I think to myself when I grow
up I’m going to be Hong Kong Phooey
I’m going to grow up and be a cartoon
character but kids are stupid sometimes
and I realize okay I can’t I can’t
become a cartoon character when I get a
little bit older that’s
stupid maybe I read a lot of comic books
maybe I could grow up and be a superhero
instead
hey that seems good and I thought I
could be Batman right but I take off the
glasses and I can’t see anything I’ve
gotta wear masks it’s dark at night and
my visions even worse then maybe that
won’t work can’t be a cartoon character
can’t be a superhero so I started
thinking if I can’t do those two things
why draw them I could draw them instead
and that seemed doable
I loved artwork so I took as many art
classes that I could and I just do
into art any class mile my counselors
would let me sign up for I signed up for
and his graduation started getting a
little bit closer I started thinking
okay the obvious choice for me is to
take some art classes in college and
maybe try my luck at Marvel Comics or
hanna-barbera studios which were kind of
ideal jobs for me at the time but then
something funny happened to me I started
to think you know if I love drawing so
much if I did that for my career if I
devoted eight or more hours each day to
doing that what if when I got home I
didn’t feel like drawing anymore what if
my job my career killed the thing I love
the most freaked me out
I didn’t want to do that I didn’t want
to go into something where it could
potentially kill the thing I love the
most
so instead I took a really conscious
decision not produce art as a career and
so I returned back to some of my earlier
thoughts about what to do when I get
older and I decided I will become a
cartoon character but you can’t do that
so I thought about superhero and I know
it sounds really really corny but I
thought I could probably do some real
good in the world
by becoming a teacher I’m not just any
kind of a teacher but an art teacher a
lot of the art teachers that I had when
I was growing up you know a little bit
about a lot of different types of art
but I didn’t feel like any of them were
real experts at any one type of art and
I wanted to be different
so I decided I was gonna devote all my
time to learning things that I was
passionate about which was drawing and
oil painting and so I got my bachelor’s
degree before going on and getting my
teaching license I figured that way I
knew more about art and I could pass
more onto kids that’s the important
thing right and that’s exactly what I
did right after graduation I got a job
as a middle school art teacher and it
was great
it seems like the ideal career path
right but what about all those dreams
about comic books and cartoons did I
really just give up on all my creative
ambitions just so I could teach other
people’s children not exactly because
kind of an unexpected Avenue opened up
for me and I didn’t expect it and after
a while it actually became something in
high school and then getting in at
college
I don’t head first into the world of
punk rock music the idea of
do-it-yourself the idea that any of you
without any real formal training can
learn something and just give it a shot
that really appealed to me and having no
musical ability I figured I could be a
singer so I did I sang for a few
different bands in high school in
college and I wasn’t very good but it
didn’t mind getting up on a stage and
making a fool of myself
still doing it so I gave that a shot for
a little bit and I realize that’s not
really my thing but I really wanted to
be involved in punk I could draw and I
knew I was good at it so I figured
alright why don’t I draw for bands
instead I’m not gonna play with him but
I’m gonna do stuff for them I’ll do
t-shirts I’ll do flyers I’ll do record
covers and maybe that wasn’t comic books
and cartoons but record covers and
t-shirts are kind of cool too for me
nothing was more satisfying than seeing
somebody wearing a t-shirt I drew Keith
Morris I drew that shirt I got a sense
of satisfaction that I had never felt
before
and I suddenly realized I had a place
where I could do all the drawing that I
wanted and it wasn’t my career and at
the beginning
it paid nothing absolutely nothing my
parents like many other parents could
not understand why I was doing so much
for other people and just giving it away
I gave away my artwork my dad and
particularly thought it was really
really foolish and maybe he was right
maybe it was kind of foolish of me to do
so much and just give it away to other
people but actually for me there was
nothing more satisfying than knowing
that there were people that really did
things I respected that wanted me to do
things for them I loved that and it
didn’t matter that I wasn’t getting paid
because I’d rather do something for
somebody that I liked and respected than
to do things that I didn’t really care
about just for money money wasn’t a
motivating force it was the fact that I
wanted to produce and I kept producing
and make no mistakes about it my
teaching gig was my career
that’s what paid my bills but it was my
day job after school I had like eight
extra hours where I could do whatever I
wanted before going to sleep and that
was pretty cool and it dawned on me you
can really do two things with your time
you can waste it or you can enhance it
we only have so many hours during our
day I can’t do anything to change
anything about that but what I can do is
change how I go about using that time
and when I decided I can take charge of
that I figured out my career wouldn’t
kill my passion I actually had time to
do both perfect right so in doing that I
then started doing artwork for tons and
tons of bands and it didn’t feel like
any kind of job for me it just felt like
something that was fun for me to do
eventually it started paying and I was a
little surprised by that cuz didn’t
really feel like I was doing anything I
felt like I was getting money for
nothing and that was a pretty awesome
feeling you know the truth is that we’ve
all got a tremendous amount of time each
day how we use it and how we choose to
use it is what dictates what we’re going
to be getting out of it
and I saw all these littered minutes of
all my days just laying there and I
thought if I could pull those things
together I could get some real serious
work done and I did and I thought if I
can do this and other people could do
this how much happier would you be how
much more could you get accomplished for
me that’s when everything changed
everything changed
so I started developing this career as a
high school teacher and things were
going great on the other side I was
doing all this artwork which actually
turned into something I was getting well
more well known for it’s a good feeling
it was a really good feeling so why am I
saying all this am I saying all of this
because I think my life is better than
yours no I’m saying this because they
think that so many of you out there have
probably done what a lot of people do
like kids that I have who graduate you
look ahead and you go my career is this
and my passion is this this has got to
pay the bills
this is sacrificed that doesn’t have to
be I feel like I’m a really good example
about being able to balance the two
things and the reason that I can balance
that my family I tell my kids all the
time at school I like them just fine but
I love my family my family is very real
anchor and it’s the reason that I do all
the work that I do in the first place I
get a lot of satisfaction out of my
career and out of the art work that I do
but ultimately I’m not as concerned with
what other people think about what I’ve
done as I am with what my wife and son
think about what I’ve done as time went
on I got married got a pretty awesome
fourteen-year-old son and you’d think
that with that I wouldn’t have as much
time for my career and for my artwork
the truth is I’ve never been busier and
I always drop everything for my family
anytime they need something I’m there
for them and that’s how I make it work
I’m not so concerned with my career or
with my passion that that dictates what
I do all the time and I have to get
satisfaction and self-worth from that
the self-worth comes from what goes on
at home so if I make sure that I’m never
a lien ating my family I’m gonna be on
top of things I constantly am asking my
son do you feel like I’m spending too
much time working do you feel like you
need more from me and if he says he does
he needs more attention I drop whatever
I’m doing and I give it to him we have
these dad and lad days we’ll go on out
and spend the whole day I’m not worrying
about work he’s not worrying about work
we spend it together those are the
reasons I’m working in the first place
for my family if they are proud of me if
they are encouraging to me that’s all I
need the other stuffs just gravy and the
reason I’m telling you this it’s because
that a lot of you if you have looked at
those passions that you’ve had in your
life and they’ve taken a back seat it’s
not too late to come back to them what’s
stopping you if when you were younger in
school singing was your thing join a
choir you know record something on your
laptop go to an open mic night if
drawing was your thing and you haven’t
drawn in a while
make some homemade presents for people
take an art class at a community college
maybe get some small canvases and paint
in your kitchen if acting was your thing
join a community theater volunteer to
read the kids at a library go see a play
stay creative actively give yourself a
reason to come home be proud of making
something that’s beautiful not for any
financial gain but because you needed to
create it as the creating stuff that
gives us heart
it’s the creating stuff that makes us
human it’s the creative stuff that gives
you a reason to do your job you know but
our goals for why we’re doing these
things change
over time and that’s probably a good
thing let’s face it you’re not gonna
become a chart-topping band when you
start and all members are in their late
40s that’s not gonna happen
but what’s stopping you from being in a
band nothing you know we can all think
of a hundred reasons why we shouldn’t
take creative risks every day and those
things really get in our way of making
that step forward and say I’m gonna try
but really when it comes down to it’s
time if you’ve got it and you can use it
maybe you should I feel like I’m an
excellent example of that I practice
what I preach I have found that I can
have a very highly successful career
balanced with a passion that I am very
very excited about and never sacrificing
my family life and to me that’s the best
feeling in the world I read this as I
was working on it to some of my students
at school and they said gee mr. Schurr
it sounds like you got an ideal life and
family and I told him you know what
ideal you’re right and I have that
because I knew early on what I wanted to
do I say focus on it I’ve made pure
decisions about what I wanted to do with
myself and I never deviated from the
things that brought me joy and if a
regular guy like me can do it what’s
stopping you thanks very much thanks
buddy
Northern California
I’ve known as a teacher however to
several thousands of people worldwide
I’m also a punk rock artist and you know
the truth is is that I’m many other
things too I am a father I’m a son I am
a good dancer I’m a skater I’m a music
lover and we all are I mean we’re all
multifaceted individuals so why is it
that most of us when were introduced to
people define ourselves with one word
moreover why is that one word typically
associated with the career that we do
well maybe it’s just socially what we do
maybe it’s just easier saying hi I’m
so-and-so and I’m a blank well that
might make things really easy but for me
it’s kind of difficult because I don’t
really know how to introduce myself a
lot of times I’ll say I’m Chris cheryan
and I don’t really know what to say a
lot of times it depends on the setting
that dictates what I say when I
introduce myself but that’s probably not
unusual for me I’m sure most of you have
felt the same way as a high school
teacher I get an opportunity to know
some of my students for four years of
their high school career and in some of
them I get to see them really blossom in
at the very very talented actors oh yeah
I didn’t mention I’m a high school drama
teacher well-known for doing punk rock
artwork teach drama I am a trained art
teacher but I haven’t taught art for a
number of years kind of things change
and you kind of get sidetracked a little
bit but getting back to my students um I
do get the opportunity to know students
really really well in four years and I
see a lot of them really blossom into
these wonderful performers and its
really really we’re roaring and you’d
probably think that because of that I’d
be turning out Nicholson’s into neros
SpaceX and Bates like nobody’s business
but the truth is is that a lot of my
students graduate don’t go into acting
and never set foot on a stage again and
to me that’s kind of heartbreaking it
doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense
does it I mean you spend four years of
your life working
really hard at something something you
love to do and then graduation you walk
away from it completely never coming
back to it that doesn’t make a whole lot
of sense until I start asking some my
students well what are you planning on
doing after graduation and a lot of them
will tell me or you know it’s been fun
mr. sherry but you knows Tom too good
sirs you know some sort thing about my
career
and I got it I understand you’ve got to
pay your bills an acting can be a
notoriously dicey career path to go into
but if you spent that much time working
and devoting yourself to something
leaving it completely it just kind of
hurts
a lot of my kids when they graduate
they’re heartbroken their childhood is
ended and it’s time to start getting
serious and getting serious for them
means walking away from your passions
and only going towards your career it’s
almost like those two things are
mutually exclusive like you don’t have
time to do both and that really really
bothers me you know we’ve all seen the
statistics I mean we all know that the
electives that hook kids and get them
excited that’s the reason most my kids
show up each day coming to my class
coming to an art class coming to a music
class those are the things that really
bring us joy on our school days and so
isn’t it pretty obvious that if it holds
that much value in your formative years
in school that after school it still has
some value of course it does and you
just close the door on that doesn’t
really make any sense I mean it’s the
electives that get kids excited I mean I
love the electives when I was in school
the things that I excelled at and I
really wanted to do and that certainly
was the case with art a picture six year
old little boy sitting in his underoos
two inches from the TV screen on
Saturday morning eaten a bowl of plain
cereal and I think to myself when I grow
up I’m going to be Hong Kong Phooey
I’m going to grow up and be a cartoon
character but kids are stupid sometimes
and I realize okay I can’t I can’t
become a cartoon character when I get a
little bit older that’s
stupid maybe I read a lot of comic books
maybe I could grow up and be a superhero
instead
hey that seems good and I thought I
could be Batman right but I take off the
glasses and I can’t see anything I’ve
gotta wear masks it’s dark at night and
my visions even worse then maybe that
won’t work can’t be a cartoon character
can’t be a superhero so I started
thinking if I can’t do those two things
why draw them I could draw them instead
and that seemed doable
I loved artwork so I took as many art
classes that I could and I just do
into art any class mile my counselors
would let me sign up for I signed up for
and his graduation started getting a
little bit closer I started thinking
okay the obvious choice for me is to
take some art classes in college and
maybe try my luck at Marvel Comics or
hanna-barbera studios which were kind of
ideal jobs for me at the time but then
something funny happened to me I started
to think you know if I love drawing so
much if I did that for my career if I
devoted eight or more hours each day to
doing that what if when I got home I
didn’t feel like drawing anymore what if
my job my career killed the thing I love
the most freaked me out
I didn’t want to do that I didn’t want
to go into something where it could
potentially kill the thing I love the
most
so instead I took a really conscious
decision not produce art as a career and
so I returned back to some of my earlier
thoughts about what to do when I get
older and I decided I will become a
cartoon character but you can’t do that
so I thought about superhero and I know
it sounds really really corny but I
thought I could probably do some real
good in the world
by becoming a teacher I’m not just any
kind of a teacher but an art teacher a
lot of the art teachers that I had when
I was growing up you know a little bit
about a lot of different types of art
but I didn’t feel like any of them were
real experts at any one type of art and
I wanted to be different
so I decided I was gonna devote all my
time to learning things that I was
passionate about which was drawing and
oil painting and so I got my bachelor’s
degree before going on and getting my
teaching license I figured that way I
knew more about art and I could pass
more onto kids that’s the important
thing right and that’s exactly what I
did right after graduation I got a job
as a middle school art teacher and it
was great
it seems like the ideal career path
right but what about all those dreams
about comic books and cartoons did I
really just give up on all my creative
ambitions just so I could teach other
people’s children not exactly because
kind of an unexpected Avenue opened up
for me and I didn’t expect it and after
a while it actually became something in
high school and then getting in at
college
I don’t head first into the world of
punk rock music the idea of
do-it-yourself the idea that any of you
without any real formal training can
learn something and just give it a shot
that really appealed to me and having no
musical ability I figured I could be a
singer so I did I sang for a few
different bands in high school in
college and I wasn’t very good but it
didn’t mind getting up on a stage and
making a fool of myself
still doing it so I gave that a shot for
a little bit and I realize that’s not
really my thing but I really wanted to
be involved in punk I could draw and I
knew I was good at it so I figured
alright why don’t I draw for bands
instead I’m not gonna play with him but
I’m gonna do stuff for them I’ll do
t-shirts I’ll do flyers I’ll do record
covers and maybe that wasn’t comic books
and cartoons but record covers and
t-shirts are kind of cool too for me
nothing was more satisfying than seeing
somebody wearing a t-shirt I drew Keith
Morris I drew that shirt I got a sense
of satisfaction that I had never felt
before
and I suddenly realized I had a place
where I could do all the drawing that I
wanted and it wasn’t my career and at
the beginning
it paid nothing absolutely nothing my
parents like many other parents could
not understand why I was doing so much
for other people and just giving it away
I gave away my artwork my dad and
particularly thought it was really
really foolish and maybe he was right
maybe it was kind of foolish of me to do
so much and just give it away to other
people but actually for me there was
nothing more satisfying than knowing
that there were people that really did
things I respected that wanted me to do
things for them I loved that and it
didn’t matter that I wasn’t getting paid
because I’d rather do something for
somebody that I liked and respected than
to do things that I didn’t really care
about just for money money wasn’t a
motivating force it was the fact that I
wanted to produce and I kept producing
and make no mistakes about it my
teaching gig was my career
that’s what paid my bills but it was my
day job after school I had like eight
extra hours where I could do whatever I
wanted before going to sleep and that
was pretty cool and it dawned on me you
can really do two things with your time
you can waste it or you can enhance it
we only have so many hours during our
day I can’t do anything to change
anything about that but what I can do is
change how I go about using that time
and when I decided I can take charge of
that I figured out my career wouldn’t
kill my passion I actually had time to
do both perfect right so in doing that I
then started doing artwork for tons and
tons of bands and it didn’t feel like
any kind of job for me it just felt like
something that was fun for me to do
eventually it started paying and I was a
little surprised by that cuz didn’t
really feel like I was doing anything I
felt like I was getting money for
nothing and that was a pretty awesome
feeling you know the truth is that we’ve
all got a tremendous amount of time each
day how we use it and how we choose to
use it is what dictates what we’re going
to be getting out of it
and I saw all these littered minutes of
all my days just laying there and I
thought if I could pull those things
together I could get some real serious
work done and I did and I thought if I
can do this and other people could do
this how much happier would you be how
much more could you get accomplished for
me that’s when everything changed
everything changed
so I started developing this career as a
high school teacher and things were
going great on the other side I was
doing all this artwork which actually
turned into something I was getting well
more well known for it’s a good feeling
it was a really good feeling so why am I
saying all this am I saying all of this
because I think my life is better than
yours no I’m saying this because they
think that so many of you out there have
probably done what a lot of people do
like kids that I have who graduate you
look ahead and you go my career is this
and my passion is this this has got to
pay the bills
this is sacrificed that doesn’t have to
be I feel like I’m a really good example
about being able to balance the two
things and the reason that I can balance
that my family I tell my kids all the
time at school I like them just fine but
I love my family my family is very real
anchor and it’s the reason that I do all
the work that I do in the first place I
get a lot of satisfaction out of my
career and out of the art work that I do
but ultimately I’m not as concerned with
what other people think about what I’ve
done as I am with what my wife and son
think about what I’ve done as time went
on I got married got a pretty awesome
fourteen-year-old son and you’d think
that with that I wouldn’t have as much
time for my career and for my artwork
the truth is I’ve never been busier and
I always drop everything for my family
anytime they need something I’m there
for them and that’s how I make it work
I’m not so concerned with my career or
with my passion that that dictates what
I do all the time and I have to get
satisfaction and self-worth from that
the self-worth comes from what goes on
at home so if I make sure that I’m never
a lien ating my family I’m gonna be on
top of things I constantly am asking my
son do you feel like I’m spending too
much time working do you feel like you
need more from me and if he says he does
he needs more attention I drop whatever
I’m doing and I give it to him we have
these dad and lad days we’ll go on out
and spend the whole day I’m not worrying
about work he’s not worrying about work
we spend it together those are the
reasons I’m working in the first place
for my family if they are proud of me if
they are encouraging to me that’s all I
need the other stuffs just gravy and the
reason I’m telling you this it’s because
that a lot of you if you have looked at
those passions that you’ve had in your
life and they’ve taken a back seat it’s
not too late to come back to them what’s
stopping you if when you were younger in
school singing was your thing join a
choir you know record something on your
laptop go to an open mic night if
drawing was your thing and you haven’t
drawn in a while
make some homemade presents for people
take an art class at a community college
maybe get some small canvases and paint
in your kitchen if acting was your thing
join a community theater volunteer to
read the kids at a library go see a play
stay creative actively give yourself a
reason to come home be proud of making
something that’s beautiful not for any
financial gain but because you needed to
create it as the creating stuff that
gives us heart
it’s the creating stuff that makes us
human it’s the creative stuff that gives
you a reason to do your job you know but
our goals for why we’re doing these
things change
over time and that’s probably a good
thing let’s face it you’re not gonna
become a chart-topping band when you
start and all members are in their late
40s that’s not gonna happen
but what’s stopping you from being in a
band nothing you know we can all think
of a hundred reasons why we shouldn’t
take creative risks every day and those
things really get in our way of making
that step forward and say I’m gonna try
but really when it comes down to it’s
time if you’ve got it and you can use it
maybe you should I feel like I’m an
excellent example of that I practice
what I preach I have found that I can
have a very highly successful career
balanced with a passion that I am very
very excited about and never sacrificing
my family life and to me that’s the best
feeling in the world I read this as I
was working on it to some of my students
at school and they said gee mr. Schurr
it sounds like you got an ideal life and
family and I told him you know what
ideal you’re right and I have that
because I knew early on what I wanted to
do I say focus on it I’ve made pure
decisions about what I wanted to do with
myself and I never deviated from the
things that brought me joy and if a
regular guy like me can do it what’s
stopping you thanks very much thanks
buddy
Please follow and like us: