Thoughtful Thursday: So Much to Think About
I am stuck in a thought loop these days. The thoughts are not always positive and have lots to do with the happenings of last week here in the States. I think I have a handle on what is going on, and then I see or hear something that just sends me back into a tizzy.
Many of my thoughts are based on the just past election, but I don't discuss my politics with other people, so this will NOT be a political blog post. There are many other things going on in my small world - are you ready for a glimpse?
My family is currently going through a situation that we had to live through about 20 years ago. I know this experience will make us a stronger nuclear family unit, but we have to live through it first. This all started on election day and has taken over most of my family interactions over the past week. This experience covers everything like a haze, coloring all other things.
I was offered a new space for music therapy yesterday. The space is four times the space that I have now. The ceilings are high, there is good light, and I would get an attached storage/office area. The downside? There is NO soundproofing to the classroom on the other side of the wall. I can hear everything that goes on next door which means that they will hear EVERYTHING that I do - no matter how quietly I attempt to do therapy. There are some confidentiality issues as well as the significant noise issues. Also, people would be accessing the room to get to the store located inside the new room at times when I couldn't be there to provide oversight.
I am both excited about and dreading the possibility of this change. There are lots of things that can go well with this type of move, but there are just as many things that can go poorly. I've been through this before (about 8 times as a matter of fact) and am asking for some guarantees from the administration.
I want to have some assurances that I will not have to be moving again when someone looks around and thinks that the space would make some wonderful offices (that happened 3 rooms ago). I want to have my custom-made cabinets moved to the new space. They fit my instruments perfectly (they should, I designed them to do so!), and I need the storage. I also want some carpeting in the room to assist me in keeping my hearing. The space is large, and it is acoustically live! I could potentially have three different session areas set up for use. I could have a large group space, a smaller lesson space, and a studio space set up all the time! I could split up my large groups to do different centers with lots of personal space and the ability to be in the room without having to be near peers.
It is amazing that being given an opportunity like this can cause lots of stress. It is both good stress and bad stress when things like this happen. There are many dominoes that will be knocked over if this move actually occurs. The first is mine - moving from the small room that I currently occupy. Then, the vocational department will have to move to a new place so the student store can move to their old place. After that, the other dominoes won't really matter as much to me.
I am trying very hard NOT to get very VERY excited about the possibility of a new place to do music therapy because I have been promised many things by administrators who have reneged on their side of things. It is very probable, based on past history, that this move will not actually happen. Someone somewhere will have some difficulty with the idea that I should get space to do my job, and it will fall through. What is actually worse is that I do get the space, get settled and make the space work well for me, and then someone takes it away. (That's happened three times since I've worked at this facility. For some reason, everyone seems to like my rooms after I've figured out how to make them work. There is some of that behind this offer - the OT department has been angling for my room since I moved in, but the only way I can get out is if I get more space, not less. My therapy is significantly different than the OT department's therapy. I do almost all groups - they don't. Rant ahead...nope, stop...ANYWAY!)
To bring this all back to my original point - there are many things going on in the lives of all of us. Some of us are focusing on what is happening in front of us - not because we don't care about the larger picture, but because our gaze is full of other things closer to us.
For me, the things right here are taking precedence. This doesn't mean that I don't care about the bigger issues happening, it simply means that I need to work on what is in front of me before I can get through to the other things.
Sorry for such a rambling post - I've got lots to think about.
Have a productive Thursday.
Many of my thoughts are based on the just past election, but I don't discuss my politics with other people, so this will NOT be a political blog post. There are many other things going on in my small world - are you ready for a glimpse?
My family is currently going through a situation that we had to live through about 20 years ago. I know this experience will make us a stronger nuclear family unit, but we have to live through it first. This all started on election day and has taken over most of my family interactions over the past week. This experience covers everything like a haze, coloring all other things.
I was offered a new space for music therapy yesterday. The space is four times the space that I have now. The ceilings are high, there is good light, and I would get an attached storage/office area. The downside? There is NO soundproofing to the classroom on the other side of the wall. I can hear everything that goes on next door which means that they will hear EVERYTHING that I do - no matter how quietly I attempt to do therapy. There are some confidentiality issues as well as the significant noise issues. Also, people would be accessing the room to get to the store located inside the new room at times when I couldn't be there to provide oversight.
I am both excited about and dreading the possibility of this change. There are lots of things that can go well with this type of move, but there are just as many things that can go poorly. I've been through this before (about 8 times as a matter of fact) and am asking for some guarantees from the administration.
I want to have some assurances that I will not have to be moving again when someone looks around and thinks that the space would make some wonderful offices (that happened 3 rooms ago). I want to have my custom-made cabinets moved to the new space. They fit my instruments perfectly (they should, I designed them to do so!), and I need the storage. I also want some carpeting in the room to assist me in keeping my hearing. The space is large, and it is acoustically live! I could potentially have three different session areas set up for use. I could have a large group space, a smaller lesson space, and a studio space set up all the time! I could split up my large groups to do different centers with lots of personal space and the ability to be in the room without having to be near peers.
It is amazing that being given an opportunity like this can cause lots of stress. It is both good stress and bad stress when things like this happen. There are many dominoes that will be knocked over if this move actually occurs. The first is mine - moving from the small room that I currently occupy. Then, the vocational department will have to move to a new place so the student store can move to their old place. After that, the other dominoes won't really matter as much to me.
I am trying very hard NOT to get very VERY excited about the possibility of a new place to do music therapy because I have been promised many things by administrators who have reneged on their side of things. It is very probable, based on past history, that this move will not actually happen. Someone somewhere will have some difficulty with the idea that I should get space to do my job, and it will fall through. What is actually worse is that I do get the space, get settled and make the space work well for me, and then someone takes it away. (That's happened three times since I've worked at this facility. For some reason, everyone seems to like my rooms after I've figured out how to make them work. There is some of that behind this offer - the OT department has been angling for my room since I moved in, but the only way I can get out is if I get more space, not less. My therapy is significantly different than the OT department's therapy. I do almost all groups - they don't. Rant ahead...nope, stop...ANYWAY!)
To bring this all back to my original point - there are many things going on in the lives of all of us. Some of us are focusing on what is happening in front of us - not because we don't care about the larger picture, but because our gaze is full of other things closer to us.
For me, the things right here are taking precedence. This doesn't mean that I don't care about the bigger issues happening, it simply means that I need to work on what is in front of me before I can get through to the other things.
Sorry for such a rambling post - I've got lots to think about.
Have a productive Thursday.
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