A Roller Coaster Life

This has been a roller coaster type of year, hasn't it? I remember all the people talking about how rotten 2019 was and how much they were looking forward to the start of the new year and the new decade and then, BLAM! Here came 2020!

I am not making any sort of predictions that 2021 is going to be ANY better than 2020 was. I do not think that the virus will mysteriously go away based on an arbitrary time construct.sxdsxdsxdsxdsxdsxdsxdsxdsxdz (Bella's notes on my thoughts...) I believe that the vaccinations that are currently being approved and distributed will help us come to an end, but it will not be based on the turning of the planet around the sun. It will be based on people being responsible and patient. It will be based on the hard work of many individuals around the world.

It fascinates me that this roller coaster life has been both on a macro and a micro scale this year. My 2019 culminated with gallbladder removal surgery and a concurrent car incident that required me to be in contact with two insurance agencies at the same time (I thought that was a nightmare). This year has brought too many ups and downs to keep track of. It is just one thing after another while working through global and national crisis after crisis.

I felt bored with my life at the end of 2019. My life is no longer boring. I am now trying to figure out how I feel about that particular fact. My life is no longer boring. It is, of course, not what I wanted when I wanted less boring, but I guess you cannot be picky if you are not specific in your resolutions! (Sarcastic laugh inserted here.)

Today is my next "work-from-home" day. I need to get some content finished and up on my work channel. I have a mid-term evaluation with my junior intern, and my senior intern has five more work days before graduation. I have had to reconceptualize the entire way that my program works because of this pandemic. I hope that my current interns get the skills that they need to be successful music therapists out of the patchworked program that I have been able to put together out of schedule changes, session changes, group changes, work from work and work from home schedules, meetings online and in person, and all that! I know that they aren't the only interns out there who have had upheavals in their music therapy lives, and I hope that this generation of music therapists will be able to adapt to in-person services without having a chance to practice these with others. I don't know. Things have defin9+++++++++++++6(more Bella speak)itely changed for our profession (and not just ours) forever.

With the ups and downs of all that has happened, it is time to start preparations for this new year coming soon. I selected my word of the year some time last month, so it is ready to be a guide for me on January 1st. I have plans for personal and professional music therapy development. I am hoping that my finger therapy goes smoothly, and I can have functioning fingers in 2021. I am also hoping that our global lives change for the positive in this new year.

I am strapped into the roller coaster (trying to keep my hands and arms inside the train at all times) and ready to take this next ride. While I would prefer less loop-de-loops and severe ups and downs, I'm committed to this ride from beginning to the end. After all, I've already been on the ride for this long...I want to see what comes next!