✨College✨ or How I Got Here, Part 3

 I moved onto campus a few weeks before classes started at Purdue so I would have time to find a job. I very distinctly remember walking across campus to a job interview. There is a big arch that reads “Purdue University”. I walked under that sign, like Mike Wazouski stepping into MU, basking in my own brilliance as a new student of such a prestigious place of study. Then I looked down, and realized I was walking in the bike lane.

Freshman year, I started out in the College of Education as a Special Education major. Countless times people inquired about my major, as is the standard get-to-know-you question on a college campus. But I got pretty much the same answer every time. “Why did you choose that major?” and “Oh, that is so wonderful, we really need good teachers, especially in special ed.” After a while, I got a bit tired of hearing the first question. No one was asking the engineering students why they chose their major. Additionally, I couldn’t exactly tell people that I was studying special education because I was inspired by my autistic cousin. I am the autistic cousin.

Shortly after I began my studies, I also got a part time job at a daycare. In the beginning, what I was learning from lectures and working in a classroom of sticky one-year-olds seemed to line up quite nicely. 

About halfway through my second semester, I started to get discouraged. I was fighting various mental health struggles and I felt like I was hitting a wall. Burnout can be common for educators, but I felt like I was experiencing burnout before I had even started. 

However, I wanted to push through. For everyone who had told me, “we need more good teachers,” I felt guilty. I did not want to fail them. 

Spring break was probably the biggest tipping point for me. I did not see it at the time, but God was lining everything up. 

I experienced a sudden job change right before spring break, which left me grieving and financially overwhelmed. I scheduled a meeting with a career advisor to figure out what might be a good path of study. Through all of this, I felt as though a cloud of guilt was hanging over my head. I saw myself as someone who was giving up. I felt I had slammed too many doors on myself. As I floundered in a metaphorical hallway of closed doors, God waltzed in and opened another.

I stumbled upon a particularly powerful quote (thanks Pinterest!):

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” -Howard Thurman

The cloud of guilt parted and sunlight broke through. 

I spoke with a local piano teacher about working part time. Even though I had not taken lessons in a couple years, I was able to cite my experience teaching piano in high school. Next I met with the career advisor. This wise advisor listened to me talk for about 5 minutes, and then said, “you sound like an artist. Go check out the liberal arts majors.”

How I Got Here, Part 2

 I have been pondering how best to share the needs of my piano student. After some time, I realized this is not my story to tell, it is her story. I will only share the details of her story as it applies to my experience teaching her. Suffice it to say, she was only able to play piano with her left hand.

The piano curriculum I learned and taught from started teaching songs for right hand at the very beginning of the book and students were playing notes with both hands before the end of the book. Obviously, if I used that curriculum, there would be too many songs I would have to skip. 

Following several days of poking around on the internet, I found a piano book for the left hand. The only problem was the book was filled with highly complex exercises for advanced pianists to strengthen their left hand. Obviously, this was not the right book for a beginner piano student. 

I concluded that I would write my own piano curriculum. The musical notation software I had at my disposal was google slides. I had some experience writing lesson plans for my early childhood education class and I had written a few silly little songs. But I was woefully underprepared. I did not want to breach a single copyright law, so I found open source songs and attempted to write my own. 

Here is a glorious example of one of the songs I wrote for this curriculum. It is probably by far the most creative and original melodies in existence. 

Obviously, I lacked the abilities to write a solid piano curriculum. However, I could not find another piano curriculum written for the use of one hand. I saw a need and decided to fill it to the best of my abilities. Was it perfect? It couldn’t be further from perfect! But this was a building block. I am so grateful for my student’s patience as I learned how to adapt lessons. She gave me the gift of this building block. And maybe in the future, after I have more experience and have taken a composition class or two, I can revisit this curriculum and make it better. 

To my readers, do not let your fear of imperfection stop you from creating something. Life is not about creating perfect things, life is about learning and growing. And I can speak from experience, the clumsy little curriculum you attempt to write in high school can be the foundation to so much more.  

My senior year of high school took me on an unexpected path. I did not teach piano or take piano classes. Since the events of that year don’t really apply, we’ll just skip to my freshman year of college in How I Got Here, Part 3. Until then, go create something!

How I Got Here, Part 1

     Once upon a pandemic, I was bored out of my mind. A few years before, I started taking piano classes. By 2020, although my performance level was suboptimal, in part due to severe performance anxiety, I had a fairly solid grasp of musical concepts and theories. 

At some point after the marshmallow fights and before true cabin-fever type insanity set in, I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out what to do with my time. Perhaps it was a spark of inspiration, a lightbulb moment, the universe leading me to my future; call it what you will. I think in truth my plan was born from mild curiosity and massive boredom. I turned to my six-year-old sister and asked her if she wanted to learn how to play the piano. Much to my surprise, she agreed. I wrongly assumed her desire to not-be-bossed-around by her big sister would outweigh her interest in piano.

We searched the bookshelves and fished around in the piano bench of our 100-year-old upright grand until we found a collection of crumpled beginner piano books. We started class and she learned her finger numbers and how to play her first song. We planned to have short lessons once a week.

Not many weeks passed before the desire to not-be-bossed-around by her big sister set in. I remedied this by offering small prizes at the end of class, and my mom helped out by offering treats. 

My teaching efforts were clumsy and I often rambled while trying to explain certain concepts such as why middle C is called middle C when it is not exactly in the center of the keyboard. Children have a way of asking questions about concepts we simply take for granted.

At the time, my career plan was to become a special education teacher. I was in high school taking classes in Early Childhood Education to get as much preparation as I could. I already knew that I wanted to help people. I enjoyed creating lesson plans. The antics of small children always made me laugh. So I knew becoming a teacher was a solid path. I would always have a job. Everyone told me, “we need good teachers.” 

However, I was surprised to discover that I was becoming somewhat good at teaching piano specifically. I enjoyed it. 

This realization dawned on me as society began to slowly reopen. Life felt a bit like a sunflower, expanding to full bloom.

I was also looking for ways to make a bit of extra money. My miniscule allowance I got from completing chores just wasn’t cutting it anymore, particularly with college around the corner.

I approached the mother of my little sister’s best friend and offered to teach the aforementioned friend piano lessons. To my elation, the mother enthusiastically agreed. Honestly, this wonderful woman’s faith in my potential changed my life. 

During my junior year of high school, I taught lessons to this young friend as well as a few other children from our church. It felt a bit like a babysitting gig. It worked wonderfully at the time. But as I said, my plan at the time was to graduate high school and go on to get a degree in education. I certainly did not expect these simple piano lessons to be the first stepping stone to being self-employed. 

The only thing I did know is I had a new student and frustratingly miniscule resources for teaching piano to someone with her needs.

To be continued…