Many of us keep full schedules, often teaching into late evening hours–The following day, we’re up at the crack of dawn to mentor a stream of students.
This past week, I Skyped a 7:00 a.m. lesson to Pennsylvania that spilled into an 8:30 a.m. slot, while the night before I’d burned the midnight oil recording and blogging.
By the time a third pupil had arrived in the morning, I was pretty much burnt out, barely able to keep my head up.
You can see the results, plain and clear as I tried to teach Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” to an adult student.
The only comparison I can make to this state of exhaustion, was my years riding the New York City subways. On the way home from a long day at the New York City High School of Performing Arts, I grabbed a jelly donut and a cup of coconut juice en route to the IRT #1 northbound train. With high sugar concentrations seeping into my veins, and crowds underground pushing me to and fro, I settled into a seat and nodded off. Before long, I felt my intermittent body jolts between stops that were only too familiar to kindred passengers. Nothing new for a native New Yorker, carried over to Fresno.
