cherry blossoms

It’s cherry blossom time in DC, so here’s an obligatory photo from the neighborhood. In a few weeks, I’ll pay my first visit to California since 2011- it seems like forever ago. We’re flying in for my cousin’s wedding and to attempt a vacation of sorts before a detour to Texas, for the SCOR! camp at Round Top. The travel gods have thus far smiled upon me- Benning Violins in LA and Blackerby Violins in Austin have generously agreed to outfit me with instruments for my purposes at both ends, eliminating the circus-like drama of traveling with the cello. I just wanted to give them a shout out, because in an industry that tends to trade on snobbery, caché and $20k transactions, these shops continually treat their clientele with courtesy and dignity, no matter how small the purchase or symphonically unaffiliated they may be.

Once back, it’s a move down the block and the Summer of Big Decisions™. There are all kinds of options being floated, from short term contracting for the military to full time English teaching to apprenticing in home restoration. Although all of these things do not involve music, the entire purpose of each option is to preserve my love for teaching and to give it room to thrive. Counting on private students for income is like relying on solar eclipses to prevent sunburn. It technically happens, but not with enough frequency to be reliable. It forces you to bank on luck. I want the experience to be elective and disentangled from the ugliness of chasing people down for money. Can you imagine what this blog would be like without the griping?

That’s what I’m hoping for. I haven’t given up on working with PTSD patients. I haven’t forgotten about volunteering for the other 140 hours. I just need to separate the things that are important to me from the need for those things to be the way I pay the bills. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure that out. Ego, I guess.

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One Response

  1. I honestly believe you’re on the right track Emily and drawing from my own experiences over the last 5 years would like to give you a bouquet of encouragement and a big hug.

    It’s perfectly possible to design a personalised basket of income streams – maybe in desperate subjects like mine, maybe not and just music orientated for you – but the financial key I’ve discovered is finding something you can always turn to when other stuff goes through a patch when they aren’t collectively paying the bills.

    For me it’s my nursing but although circumstances dictated I go back to it, being *forced” to do so has made me realise how much I love it and it’s now a permanent feature of my life.

    Bonus 1 – I can work in the UK or Spain or actually anywhere I choose. Bonus 2 – I feel much more balanced as a person than when I was 100% focused on music. My online biz interests like blogging, travelling and music fit around a financial core and Bonus 3 – there’s variety in the amount of time I spend on each subject. I’ve also been amazed how transferable skills which you’d normally associate with one industry can be and the additional number of income generating opps that pop up once you’ve identified those

    FWIW: Maybe start by looking at your CV in terms of skill sets rather than positions held? And another question for you: why does it have to be choose one option; why can’t it be several? You make the rules 🙂

    MAZZA X

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