Spring-itis

I've been thinking about senior-itis. That condition in which you know you still have some work to do, but you are also ready to move on the next thing. It takes a serious work ethic to stay the course.

These four seniors I have are working hard. But, they also took on big goals. Really big goals. Big senior recitals. All of them. I keep telling them, this is not about some moment in time when we expect you to be absolutely perfect and have every piece at it's peak. But. . . you have worked really hard these last fifteen or so years and it would be nice to show you off and celebrate and be pleased with the result.

I'm trying to help them break down the work. Decide which pieces you need to play everyday, presumably because they are the most physically and technically demanding. Then decide which pieces you can get away with playing every other day or every third day. Break down your practice time into sections and set small goals. We have big green charts. Slow, slow, slow wins the race. One super slow repetition is worth 100 fast run-throughs. I keep telling them, if I, as an adult, was playing that program, I'd be practicing four to five hours a day. I always figure about an hour per day of ten minutes of music, or if it's at the top of my technical ability, an hour for five minutes of music. But that's just little old me. I'm a practicer. These kids are smarter and learn faster than I do. . . and occasionally they have that magical ability to pull off something in performance that they hacked through in practice. The thing is, you never know when you will reach the ceiling of that ability. There will come a day when you can no longer wing it. It might be your pride, it might be your physical ability or it might be some performance anxiety creeping in. It might be playing the recital the day after prom. You have to be prepared for that day. I know they aren't gonna practice four to five hours a day this last month of their senior years. I understand. They each have a plan. I'm not loosing sleep. I'm just saying. If it was me. . .

Me? I'm having spring-itis. My flower mart is covered in snow. This week I think we all here in Minnesota hit rock bottom. Everything was wrong. Nobody could please me. There was a pea under my mattress for sure. The gymnastics coach bugging me. The guitar teacher bugging me. The school called to tell me Mary was going to have government cheese sandwich lunch because I forgot to send the lunch money. Big tears. The irony of this, of course is that I send a cheese sandwich with Calvin every single day of his life.

Finally Thursday afternoon after the tenth inch of snow over two inches of ice. . . everything shut down. All activities cancelled. Full stop. The reset button. A snow day in April. No lessons. No. gymnastics. Family dinner. Everyone home with a fire in the fireplace. Not the smell of potting soil and warm earth. But still a moment. It's hard to want what you have sometimes. Spring-itis. Senior-itis.  We all just need to stay the course. Buckle down and do the task in front of us. Don't wish it away. We will have earned our Spring, and those kids will earn their Summer.