All Done

Wildrose Strings, May 15, 2013

Yesterday I taught my last violin lesson.  It was a make-up lesson for one that had been missed earlier.  I am now officially "retired."

When I originally agreed to teach here it was as a substitute for a teacher who was going abroad (to Beirut, Lebanon) for a year.  She and her husband had both been invited to teach at the American School there for a year.

That one year turned into two, so I took on a second year, which has just been completed.

This is a picture of the little string group just after we finished giving our year end recital on May 15th.  You can see from all the big smiles that we were very happy with our playing.  It was the capstone of a long, sometimes difficult struggle to learn our music and learn how to play as a unit, not a collection of individuals.

I feel a sense of "completeness" about finishing this two year teaching stint.  I'm glad that I did it.  I'm happy with the progress that each of my students made. (They are the center six people in the photo, two in the front row, three in the middle and one hiding in the back.)  And I'm more than pleased with the accomplishments of the little string group.

There were times when I wished I didn't have to go out teaching on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Times I would rather have stayed home and sewed, knitted and read novels, especially when the weather was frigid and stormy, which was a lot of the time this past winter.  But, without exception, each time I was there with the students, I enjoyed them.  Sometimes I was just blown away by what they accomplished.  Sometimes it was evident that they hadn't put in enough serious practice time.  But each and every time I enjoyed them as the persons that they are.  It's a treat for an older person, such as myself, to be associated with young people.

I will miss them!