October is flying by…my busy schedule certainly helps.  Lots of teaching, workouts, and some lovely chamber music rehearsals (finally some real music!).  No orchestra on the horizon…it’s weird how longs it’s been since I’ve played in orchestra.  (It’s also amazing how much the people who actually get to play in orchestra around here complain about it, but that’s another story!)  I “just” teach children now 🙂  Naturally many people assume that means I am not a performer…otherwise surely I would be doing that.  But one of my good friends here said it best the other day…we do what we can to be as happy as possible.  I’d rather be here with Chris than somewhere else, so I do what I can 😉

A few weeks ago someone said to me “oh, you wouldn’t know good playing, you just teach beginners!” (paraphrased, as some time has gone by…).  It still bugs me that some people think those of us who teach beginners wouldn’t know good advanced playing, OR that we don’t know how to teach a beginner so that SOMEDAY that beginner could end up being a wonderful well-rounded musician (perhaps even a nice person, able to maintain relationships!).  The thing is…I prefer teaching older kids/more advanced kids.  I’m hoping in the near future that will be the case more often 🙂  But when I teach beginners, well, I sure make the most of it, because I know (not to sound totally cliched) that they are our future, and they should love violin/music because if NOTHING else, we need to pass on our love of classical music to the younger generations.  So I try to remind myself of how important a teacher is, and try NOT to let the naysayers and negative Nellies (even the ones in my head!) bring me down.  After all, none of us would be where we are today without good teachers in the past.  What I do impacts many people every day.