New Challenges
It has been a long time since I've last written for the Road. It started with the U.S East Coast power outages after Sandy, and continued through me getting a third job. This is, in fact, exactly what I'd like to talk about today.
I've already discussed the challenges of being a college student and a musician on a campus where you are majoring in something other than music. It's hard to juggle practice time and recreational music time with studies.
However, a new challenge for me, as I touched upon earlier, is the balance of work and play. In my case, I have postponed my academia in order to work hard to establish some form of fiscal security. I work for a private group in the maintenance department, I have a private landscaping account, and I work for Service Master; three jobs that demand quite a bit of my time. The money is pretty darn great, but I've been finding, more and more lately, that I haven't the time to play my saxophones, or even my ocarina or anything else. I try to get out to do so, but it's hard with the work, and any other private matters that are important, such as family time and time with my partner.
Ask anyone with even the slightest amount of responsibility: time management is that bit of being an adult that causes adults to tell children "don't wish your days away".
Ironically, I've been working extra hard in order to afford things like new saxophones and other music gear. However, that said, I think that all this work with very little play will inevitably pay off. Someday soon I'll have a new saxophone which can actually keep up with me, and a new car that can take me to prospective future gigs and open mics.
At any rate, this is simply a new challenge along my own road as a musician, and I need to travel on it in order to overcome the difficulties. It may be a new challenge, but in a way, this is nothing new. I've been faced with challenges since the moment I touched my first saxophone. This is but another issue I will find settlement in.
And indeed, if you find yourself in this same 'all work and no play' predicament, I'll tell you now, just keep diligent and you'll figure out what it is you need to do to have everything you want. Budget your time properly and new opportunities will open up before you.
I've already discussed the challenges of being a college student and a musician on a campus where you are majoring in something other than music. It's hard to juggle practice time and recreational music time with studies.
However, a new challenge for me, as I touched upon earlier, is the balance of work and play. In my case, I have postponed my academia in order to work hard to establish some form of fiscal security. I work for a private group in the maintenance department, I have a private landscaping account, and I work for Service Master; three jobs that demand quite a bit of my time. The money is pretty darn great, but I've been finding, more and more lately, that I haven't the time to play my saxophones, or even my ocarina or anything else. I try to get out to do so, but it's hard with the work, and any other private matters that are important, such as family time and time with my partner.
Ask anyone with even the slightest amount of responsibility: time management is that bit of being an adult that causes adults to tell children "don't wish your days away".
Ironically, I've been working extra hard in order to afford things like new saxophones and other music gear. However, that said, I think that all this work with very little play will inevitably pay off. Someday soon I'll have a new saxophone which can actually keep up with me, and a new car that can take me to prospective future gigs and open mics.
At any rate, this is simply a new challenge along my own road as a musician, and I need to travel on it in order to overcome the difficulties. It may be a new challenge, but in a way, this is nothing new. I've been faced with challenges since the moment I touched my first saxophone. This is but another issue I will find settlement in.
And indeed, if you find yourself in this same 'all work and no play' predicament, I'll tell you now, just keep diligent and you'll figure out what it is you need to do to have everything you want. Budget your time properly and new opportunities will open up before you.
