Alabama Orchestra Association
Happy New Year Maggie Snyder, President, AOA
As a person who has always lived on a school sched- ule because my parents were both educators, I always think "next year" refers to September. The end of "this year" is May and the summer is the limbo in between the beginning and the end of the year.
It is
It is free space, time to relax, have fun and wonder about the next year. It's time to travel and go places and do things that I can't do during a 9am to 9pm day that is my usual university workday.
an extended new years party, of sorts. But at the end of a good party, I'm never really all that sad that it's over, and I'm happy to be heading back to life and work and productivity. A real and good celebration with good friends and challenging interactions makes me feel rejuvenated and ready for a new day. Of course, in reality my extended new year's (sum- mer time) is really a time to get caught up on per- sonal things that I didn't attend to during the year, like practicing, my taxes, housecleaning, research- ing, traveling etc. The end of summer means that whatever I didn't get done this summer may just have to wait until next summer because I probably won't have time between now and then to get to it.
I also tend to think that the summer is longer than it actually is, and that I'll be able to do more than is humanly possible to do during a working vacation. I fill up on hush puppies and barely have room for cat- fish! In the end, though, I think that I've always felt the same about going back to school as I did when I was younger. Summer is great, it's fun, and I've loved whatever trip or work or project that I worked on. I've learned more and gotten rested, and I feel a little more hydrated and a bit more tanned. It's just like summer when we were younger. Summer is AWE- SOME, but I'm always ready to see my friends again. I want to know who's changed what hair color, who lost weight
20 ala breve - August 2005
over the summer (who gained weight over the sum- mer !!), and what my new fall wardrobe will be. I anticipate moving on to the next grade, to getting bet- ter grades and to meeting the new people that come in. The only difference for me now, teaching school instead of going to school myself, is that I'm paying for the clothes, and the people making the grades and moving on to the next level are my students. I work to improve myself and to improve my teaching, but the end goal of those improvements is for the benefit of my students.
So anyway, this year, I notice that I really feel the same way I did when I was younger.
I'm ready to
meet the new people, whether it's faculty, staff, or my new students. I anticipate curriculum changes, the challenges of learning (and teaching!), and the new friendships and working relationships I will make. And the real kicker is that the benefit of actually being a grown up and not a student anymore (am I not a student still and forever?) is that I not only get to revel in my improvements and what I learn, but I get the pure enjoyment and satisfaction of watching my students learn, and seeing the joy that comes with
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