Once Upon A Time...
...in a land far, far away...
there lived a weird girl. Well,
weird by apparently almost anyone's standards. Enjoying life was 'bad'. Being happy was 'bad'. Trying to help people was mostly 'bad'. Basically, being who I was – who I am – was met with severe disapproval by many of my peers. I was too happy. I was too loud. I was too nice, too boring, too community-focused, too religious, etc etc.
This is what school does to you. Or, at least, to fragile minds like mine.
I am very glad to say that nowadays, generally speaking, I feel free to say and do what I think is best. I have a job (well, technically, several) that is all about enriching other people's lives, and it enriches mine, too. I am a choir director, singing/piano teacher, organist (ish), performer and composer, and I am extremely grateful that I've got this far. I'm 31.
It's not been easy, and I don't feel for one moment like I've 'made it', but I do feel in a place where, if I were never to do anything else in my whole life, I wouldn't feel like I'd done too badly.
I wonder how much of this is having finished the early years of having children. (That nearly killed me, I can tell you.) And how much of it is being over 30. There's definitely something much more settled about me now, but saying that this is the longest period I've been in a post in my life, so maybe that's it. Only recently I was also working for the National Trust, which I loved, but that was a fixed-term contract, alas. However, it did open up more space to take on my fourth choir, so I can well and truly call myself a choral director if I didn't before!
I love directing choirs. I get to enjoy music while encouraging and teaching others; sharing my love of music whilst ensuring that it's is being rehearsed/performed in the best way possible (and therefore not having to sit quietly, cringing, in the corner). Teaching is great but too tiring for me to do for too long. I have various health issues including being a type 1 diabetic, chronic depression and severe exhaustion that hasn't really been diagnosed as anything treatable yet (I'm on meds for under-active thyroid but with no change in my tiredness 4 months in). So trying to work, in itself, is pretty hard, but the brilliant thing about music is that it feeds the soul.
The title of my blog comes from a quotation that is attributed to Plato, which I got from the Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations:
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
Music keeps me going, helps me to stay alive. Literally. And on that note...
there lived a weird girl. Well,
This is what school does to you. Or, at least, to fragile minds like mine.
I am very glad to say that nowadays, generally speaking, I feel free to say and do what I think is best. I have a job (well, technically, several) that is all about enriching other people's lives, and it enriches mine, too. I am a choir director, singing/piano teacher, organist (ish), performer and composer, and I am extremely grateful that I've got this far. I'm 31.
It's not been easy, and I don't feel for one moment like I've 'made it', but I do feel in a place where, if I were never to do anything else in my whole life, I wouldn't feel like I'd done too badly.
I wonder how much of this is having finished the early years of having children. (That nearly killed me, I can tell you.) And how much of it is being over 30. There's definitely something much more settled about me now, but saying that this is the longest period I've been in a post in my life, so maybe that's it. Only recently I was also working for the National Trust, which I loved, but that was a fixed-term contract, alas. However, it did open up more space to take on my fourth choir, so I can well and truly call myself a choral director if I didn't before!
I love directing choirs. I get to enjoy music while encouraging and teaching others; sharing my love of music whilst ensuring that it's is being rehearsed/performed in the best way possible (and therefore not having to sit quietly, cringing, in the corner). Teaching is great but too tiring for me to do for too long. I have various health issues including being a type 1 diabetic, chronic depression and severe exhaustion that hasn't really been diagnosed as anything treatable yet (I'm on meds for under-active thyroid but with no change in my tiredness 4 months in). So trying to work, in itself, is pretty hard, but the brilliant thing about music is that it feeds the soul.
The title of my blog comes from a quotation that is attributed to Plato, which I got from the Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations:
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
Music keeps me going, helps me to stay alive. Literally. And on that note...
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