The small three bar heater that has been glowing in the corner of this frigidaire of a room throughout these cold winter weeks spat the dummy the other day. In what felt like a metaphorical fable told by some greek god on a cloud, at first the top globe blew, and soon after the second globe. I’m now down to the lowest globe which fails to even defrost my toes when I stand almost on top of it.
This morning I journeyed into university and slammed some papers down on someone’s desk and screamed “Let me out, you damned dirty ape!” In reality, I attended a prebooked appointment with the subdean and got her signature on a form to state that I am indeed dropping the commerce part of my degree. I’ll now be a lowly Creative Arts graduate, come December. When I explained I wanted to do a graduate diploma of education (to become a secondary teacher), the subdean looked up from her papers and said “Oh, well. I guess that’s something to fall back on.”
Should I go through with it (as much as I’d love a decently paid Musical Director/Performer job to come up quickly and quietly), it terrifies me that in 18 months I might just be a high school music teacher. I guess I still have substantial time to get used to the idea. And I’d better. After studying to be a composer, I looked to other things, and found that commerce wasn’t quite the right fit. Teaching is my final light globe, but I hope at least it will defrost my toes.
Well done you.. must have been a happy day! No more flowcharts… Just never call your school band anything like a certain credit union.
Penguin – It really did feel like I suddenly had achieved something. It feels great, I just hope I’m enough of a teacher to be of some value.
Reminds me of a song from the show “Ruthless” (Teaching third grade.) You might find yourself looking for something to fall back on… from what you’ve fallen back on.
Erick
Well, to put a positive spin on it, at least as a high school music teacher, you will have the opportunity to put your musical director experience to good use if you work on school musicals, experience the joy of encouraging young minds to appreciate some of the finer things in life and keep yourself eternally young by surrounding yourself with young people.
Erick B – I know the song, and sadly, the sentiment too. :)
Kevin – I do enjoy teaching a lot, so it’s not really as bad as it sounds.
Tyson, I think that you should take a year after you graduate to have a shot at “breaking into the business”, or finding your perfect job. You should do it now while you have the energy and ability and your parents to foot the bill. Then when you have given it a chance, you can always look at teaching. You are a young whipper-snapper.
The doesn’t mean you HAVE TO BE a high school teacher. It’s just something else to put on your CV, another string to your bow, if you will.
It will also make for interesting reading in Vanity Fair after your first Broadway smash. ;)
I have to agree and disagree with the various commentators… Steph, you have the right idea.. it does not mean you have to BE a high school teacher… i cannot imagine anything worse… Rebecca, I agree.. time off is great… it really makes you want to return to uni… Tyson, yes teaching is as bad as it sounds… 30 kids trying as hard as they can to ignore you and make you scream… actually it’s worse! and Kevin, teaching does not make you feel young. It makes you feel old… very very old… everyone is younger than you, they hate you on principle and you are eternally tired…
that is all.