When I decided to go to University for music I was warned by a lot of other musicians that there was one major risk with my choice. I may fall out of love with music. At the time I thought that was a weird thing to say, especially coming from those who chose music as there career. But they told me that when you tirelessly study and dissect music all day for four years, it starts to become a job and not a passion. Because of this they told me so many stories of people they knew dropping out of music, and in some cases, stopping music all together. This definitely scared me, but did not deter me from pursuing it anyways.
Fast forward to my third or so year of University and I started to see what they meant. After a few failed courses things like theory and learning pieces for instruments I didnt really like, started to feel like a chore. There were parts of music that I was definitely falling out of love with. Dont get me wrong, there were so many parts that I still enjoyed. I loved composing and rehearsing for ensembles. I never stopped loving drumming, but all the in between started to get old.
I recently started thinking about those days and how much I would love to tell that version of me that not only does it work out but I have found a career in music that never gets boring. Sometimes I need to work late, and I’m always on call. I miss having my evenings due to teaching lessons. And when I have school gigs followed by lessons followed by rehearsals, I am exhausted. But I never get sick of what I do. I love teaching, I love performing, I love working with kids and I love seeing them grow. In the end this is what I was meant to be doing. I love all parts of music again because I created a job that focused on the parts I’m passionate about.
Hilary