The To-Do List Just Grows and Grows

'Tis the season for MJ to start getting stressed out. It is Online Conference for Music Therapy season. If you haven't heard about this Conference (affectionately known as OCMT), you aren't alone, but I'm going to tell you a bit about this conference.

This is the first, completely online, international conference for music therapy. We've been running these opportunities for 5 years now, and each year gets better and better. 

Now, in the interest of full disclosure...

I am a founding member of this conference, and I am the treasurer and Continuing Education Director, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I like this conference because I get to know and hear about music therapy from around the world. I don't like the insane 24 hours of behind the scenes work and stress that comes from being one of the people who runs this conference, but there are downsides to every conference. This one just happens to be electronic in nature...

In the next (shudder) 13 days, my life will be increasingly taken over by OCMT tasks, thoughts, and stressors. There's going to be lots and lots of emails, registration forms, CMTE questions and jobs to do. There are deadlines that I will have to be firm on (difficult to do, but necessary). There will be jobs to do at certain times. There will be glitches. There will be audio issues. All of these things are part of being in the electronic world.

The thing that I will remember about this conference is the same thing that I remember after each one of these conferences. 

The stress, work, and hassle of doing this is more than worth it.

This conference is a great thing!

I am proud to be part of bringing this conference to music therapists from around the world.

At the end of the conference, when I collapse into my bed, I always feel like we've done something good. That's what matters.

I hope you are able to attend our conference. It would be wonderful to see you there.