My Story, Part 5 — Starting Over

Our 39' sailboat, Gitana, in the Bay of California near our hometown of San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico.

Back to teaching

I received a call from a church music director a few months after quitting my public school job. He asked if I was interested in teaching private lessons at their church through their conservatory. I told him I needed a break from teaching, but would like to be able to call him in the future.

After several months of working at Starbucks and then a yarn store, I wised up. I knew I wanted to go back to teaching music, so I called him. I was lucky! He still needed teachers so we set up an interview. I was hired and started teaching piano and flute lessons in the spring semester.

The following school year, I was hired at another local church's conservatory. I had students every weekday afternoon, but I still needed to tweak my job just a bit to fit what I really desired for my life.

I still needed to tweak my job just a bit to fit what I really desired for my life. 

Moving away

I taught for two years at two church music conservatories. But California is expensive and we wanted to move somewhere less constricting financially. So we decided to move to Colorado.

As we planned our move, I started to research Colorado Springs. We decided to visit a few months before moving, so I set up two interviews with music schools. Although both schools had many students and needed teachers, I didn't believe that either were the right fit for me.

That's when I realized I wanted to set up my own studio, preferably at home.

That's when I realized I wanted to set up my own studio, preferably at home. By 2008, after being in Colorado for one year, I had a thriving professional studio of over 50 students a week. (You can read about how I did it — and how you can do it — here.)

A New Season

In 2009 I got divorced. I carried on teaching at home and took time to heal, run a marathon, and well, met someone new! We married in 2010 and my life took a whole new direction!

We decided to start over together — in Mexico. For two and a half years, I was able to teach private lessons to one student, direct our church choir and help lead worship, and have fantastic adventures on our 39’ sailboat and in our 37’ motorhome. (I blogged about it here.)

Baby #1 was born in Mexico. That was an adventure!

After getting pregnant with baby #2 we decided to move back to the United States. We chose Flagstaff, AZ where I currently reside, since it is so similar to Colorado which we both loved, but was also close to family.

I started teaching again in 2014, then opened my own studio in 2015. I now have a flourishing commercial studio where I also rent studio space to other teachers. You can check it out at InfusingMusicStudios.com.

Did you miss Part 1 of My Story? Read about The Early Days here

Have you had to start over? I'd love to hear your story below!