2012

Greetings, people!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are now enjoying some down time before the busy-ness of next year starts up again!

After Esther's comment reminded me that I still have a blog (that's right, I actually forgot!), I decided I might bore you all with a summary of my year. Many of you have probably heard a lot of this before, so my apologies if I bore you with my life story a second time.

Driving was probably the most exciting and life-changing highlights of 2012. You've probably seen my post about when I got my P's AND my first car ON THE SAME DAY!! (It also happened to be my 17th birthday, but in comparison, birthdays are insignificant.) That awesome feeling still hasn't worn off when I realize I no longer need to nag one of my parents to take me somewhere or beg a lift with a longsuffering friend. Instead, I have enjoyed giving many, many lifts to siblings and friends, and making the most of the FREEDOM that driving brings. Best of all, my parents are soooooo relieved now they don't have to worry about stressing out with an L-plater (until July.....).

Diploma - I now hold an Associate Diploma in Flute Performance!!! Stressful as it was, the whole exam experience was by far my most enjoyable yet. I usually enjoy exams, but having never done a diploma exam before, I was a little unsure as to what to expect. Once I was in the room and started playing, though, the hours of practice took control, and I was so happy to play all my pieces the best I had ever played them before! I was so excited afterwards that I didn't care (and didn't know) whether I had passed or failed - I was just pleased to have done my personal best. My teacher was so helpful and encouraging, and I learnt so much that the mark seemed unimportant. It was still very exciting to find out I passed, though, and now I can put the letters after my name as a proper accreditation!!

Graduating Year 12 was probably the most anti-climactic achievement of the year, actually. It just didn't seem nearly as exciting as what I had always anticipated. It's still a great feeling when I realize I don't need to worry about school anymore, but because I had been doing so little school work (life and music kind of took over), school kind of fizzled out without my noticing it was all finished. I have always enjoyed school and really valued the opportunity to learn about so many things, that if it weren't for the fact that I get to move on to bigger and better things now, I would actually be a little sad that I will never do school again.

Teaching has been probably my biggest focus in Term 4, and I have really valued the experience I have gained over this year. Working with much younger students than I was used to, I quickly learnt how trying teaching can be. In Term 4 I had over 20 students, about half of whom were primary-aged students who rarely touched their instruments in between lessons. My patience was seriously tested when one particular student failed to even bring his music for the first FIVE lessons! Repeated notes and phone calls to parents didn't seem to alleviate the problem, so eventually I bought a copy of his book so he had no excuse to skip the lesson. I guess you could say I gained some valuable life experience, though it just felt like hard work at the time. In any case I managed to save up a bit of money, and gave some students the opportunity to discover music, so I am happy with how things went. I hope to continue teaching some of my students in 2013 on a fortnightly basis (since I will be living in Canberra).

Some other highlights of 2012 include having my own room for most of the year and playing in two professional orchestras for Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation - both ASTOUNDING pieces of music!!!

It has been a great year for learning about what matters in life, with many lessons learnt the hard way that will hopefully not be forgotten in a hurry! I have yet to learn many other lessons as well, and pray for God's guidance so that I don't become distracted and lose focus while at uni next year. Studying and working both have their place, but I want to make sure not to lose sight of the things that really last.


See you next year! Have a great New Year's Eve, and let me know what your highlights in 2012 were!