As a teacher, my life ebbs and flows with the confines of the academic calendar. I find myself anxious and excited as August approaches with the promise of a new school year, new students, new repertoire to learn, new performances to plan. But May comes all too soon. This particular school year flew by me and all of a sudden, final exam week had arrived and I started saying my goodbyes. With graduation comes many goodbyes, but in this case it was me who was doing the leaving. After four joyful years of teaching at Eastern Illinois University, I will be moving to North Carolina to teach at UNC Charlotte. I am so thankful that its hard for me to say goodbye - how rare it is to work alongside talented and kind colleagues, wonderful and eager students, all inside a beautiful building.
The landscape of fall 2016 will look much different than the first half of the year, but thankfully the important things will weave their common threads into my life: students to teach, colleagues to collaborate with, music to learn, reeds to make, places to explore....but now there will be mountains. Hello North Carolina.
