Things never go quite as expected

You'd think I would have figured out by now that things never go quite as I expect them to.

When September started, I expected to start work at the church on October 1st and have been steadily working on my needs for there through August and September. Yet, when the time came and October 1st came along, I felt terribly behind. The prep work that I had done had to be changed due to outside forces and, well... today's first service that I actually played wasn't quite what I had expected. Folks over all seemed more than happy, but I felt unprepared and always a step behind. Not my favourite feeling.

I also had a certain number of students in certain timeslots and thankfully, most of those are still as I expected.

The community choir that I play for has an oversight committee and without consulting me (I'm not being haughty - they need an accompanist to do what they have plans to do) have added several "gigs" to their schedule. What I expected to be Wednesday nights as it has been for the past two years has modified in to Wednesday nights and a "gig" a month - mainly on Saturday nights and often a 4 hour drive out of town, which will make me getting back to play for the Sunday morning church service a bit tricky. But, they didn't know that I was starting a new job at a church (because they didn't consult) and didn't think I'd have an issue with a paid trip out of town every couple of months (I get re-imbursed, so I have a lot of out of pocket expenses which I find difficult to be able to handle with my current debt-load)

Without any adjudicating jobs in sight (I have sent out 14 and have heard from half of them that they are already booked and the other half I have heard absolutely NOTHING from), I still have to continue to add to my resume so it doesn't look like I just didn't do any kind of work that can be added to my resume, changed up my direction, didn't do any professional development, etc and I have been actively on the look out for seminars, workshops, etc. which is much like pulling hens teeth around here. I will be taking part in one, but not sure it is going to be put on the resume since it is someone I've worked closely with the past few years and have already got their PD stuff on my resume.

A few weekends ago, I was approached by a colleague whom I worked with this past year in a few capacities - one as an adjudicator at their local festival and then as a performer at the concert held here in August to do a choral workshop with their highschool-aged choir group. It just so happens that they are holding their own performance weekend in November and invited me along. I said yes, so my mom & I are going to be heading up to see them in their element in the middle of November so I will be the workshop presenter helping them to get competition ready! I am honoured and feel very blessed and totally STOKED that I can put that on my adjudicator resume as it should help me get more/better jobs next year.

Then, last weekend I got an amazing request/offer to come out and help a fellow colleague put together a school choir at the high school he teaches at. They haven't had any formal choral work in years and he asked me if I would be willing to help. No promise of money and I was happy to work with him on a favour exchange basis because 1) I already owed him a few favours 2) I expect I'll be asking him for a few more as he is one of the best musicians around and he has saved my bacon the past couple of concerts I've put on 3) I really enjoy working with him as I learn a LOT about the tech side and band side of life which I know virtually NOTHING about 4) I'll be able to put this on my resume and it will look AWESOME to prospective adjudicator committees 5) He is willing to write a letter of reference to attach with the resume! SWEET DEAL! I'm in! So, even though I'm not doing any actual adjudicating, I am going to be doing things to help me get bigger and better adjudicating jobs.

Things never go quite as expected. I was really upset about not being booked for any adjudicating. I really enjoy it. I feel like I do a good job of it, but have burned through all the available festivals in my provincial area. Branching out to other provinces I expected to be more difficult, but wasn't expecting to be completely stone-walled. But, had I booked adjudication jobs, I wouldn't have been able to accept the request to help put together a choir from the ground up and work on their musical in the spring. Not as expected, but perhaps different isn't better or worse and it really is just...different.

Sometimes, I look ahead 6 or 10 or 12 months and nothing turns out the way that I looked at them to be. I will be interested to look back at the coming months in the Spring and see whether or not these expectations balance out.