It could have been worse, I could have crashed in an airplane, struck by lightning or even hit by a train, luckily THAT didn’t happen. You don’t take a step off that cliff into chance and expect to float all the way down without a few bumps and bruises along the way. It’s how you learn and how you grow. For every person out there who believes in weighing life, for every weight on the left, a weight on the right balanced it out. In the end, the school year has wrapped up, and it all turned out in a happy ending with a little more gained knowledge and a step further into shaping who I am and where I want to go.

   Taking a leap of faith I tried to put myself out there even more this year with conference presentations in state and on national level, I continued to blog every friday and after putting a few pins on the website www.pinterest.com my ideas reached a whole new audience. I tried to get the Music Ed Motivation Day www.musedmot.webs.com off the ground, even though it continues to be a struggle to reach a wider audience I’m learning and getting better time after time. I also took a bigger step into the Technology Institute for Music Educators organization www.ti-me.org joining their marketing committee and taking on the responsibility of writing their commercial member feature articles. On top of all of this I have written multiple blog posts for www.quavermusicblog.com  and have been a proud member of their Quaver Advisory Council. I know I’m nuts but I have the Speed theory, if I stop going 50 mph I might keel over hehe.

     With all the positives obviously came some negatives, I don’t think I have ever had a period where I have been so depressed and stressed in my life. It s amazing how only a few words can hurt you so badly that sends you spiraling into such a negative place. Sometimes it might not show, but, never question the heart a teacher puts into teaching. We don’t do it for the money or the glory, we do it because we love it. Thanks to a support system that is so amazing I made it through and truly realized who I need to keep myself surrounded with. Teachers in my buildings, and my amazing PLN got me through it with only a bruised self esteem and another big learning experience notched in my belt.

So what are the hopes for next year? Now that I know my biggest fear is no more, I have another year set up in my current district (year 4!). I’ve begun searching for that perfect grad school, started some bigger projects to take me to the next level professionally,  and continued my favorite thing of making new friends and connections in the music education world. In my head I have at least one more year in my current school, after that who knows I hope to make a big leap out of the school district I have been in since I was in Kindergarten. I might leave teaching for a bit to get my grad degree, I might not, I’m one of those people that if a good opportunity comes along I’m going to take it. It’s a new experience I can look back on later in life.

In the end, it’s going to be another exciting year ahead and odds are, I’m gonna be alright.