Drastic changes

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I love being a piano teacher. I started teaching as soon as I moved here after our wedding, and have only stopped once since. That was the year we spent in Indiana. When we came back to South Carolina, I reopened my studio and resumed teaching almost immediately. I absolutely love being a piano teacher, though I very rarely blog about it.

Things are about to change.

Several weeks ago, Stephen and I decided that it would be best for our family if I closed my piano studio for the time being. It was not an easy decision and honestly, I really struggled with it. However, since deciding it was something that needed to be done, I went ahead and started making the preparations to stop teaching.

I told my students one month ago. One student found a new teacher almost immediately. Last night and today, I heard from three more students that they have found teachers. Suddenly, I find myself with too few students to keep my studio open any longer.

My original plan was to teach until the beginning of October. My due date is mid-October, so we thought that would give me enough time to stop before worrying about going into labor early. However, since many teachers tend to follow school schedules, I ended up telling my students in June that I’d be stopping so that they could start looking for new teachers.

I knew it was possible that they’d all find new teachers right away, but I was not expecting that to actually happen. Guess I was wrong there. Now my last lessons will be next week, since most of my students are starting with their new teachers in August.

It really surprises me how things ended up working out. I never really considered having two full months of break before baby’s expected arrival, but I’m thankful for it. We started school this week here so it will be nice not to worry about overlapping schedules.

One student brought a scrapbook she made me to her lesson tonight. In it, she outlined her feelings and reactions to each year studying piano and how much she loves it. Her assignment notebook and theory book each had little notes scattered throughout: “Please don’t go,” “I don’t want to stop,” “I love you,” “You make music fun,” “I’m going to miss you.” The tears almost started right then. I have kept all the little cards and pictures from students over the years, but this is one thing I definitely treasure and she caught me off guard when she gave it to me.

I didn’t realize it would be this hard to stop when we first started discussing it. While I am completely confident that this is the right decision for our family for right now, I am definitely going to miss it.

Maybe someday I’ll start teaching again, but for now it’s time to concentrate on my family. It’s hard to let go of something I love so much, but I’m looking forward to having more time to spend with my children now because of it.