to something I learnt today from an old student of mine...he was Phantom in our version of The Phantom of the Opera...a lovely child with a pure voice...today he was reminiscing about our practice sessions - me a novice, hiding my diffidence and fear behind a stern taskmaster-ish front, trying to make sense of an assignment which I had no experience of, but which a demanding Head wanted - or else - and here this boy, my Phantom, goes - 'Looking back on those days always brings me back to a sense of contentment' - the years vanish, and I can hear him sing 'Music of the Night' with all the passion of a teenager...and interpret it in his own unique way -
and I think - after all these years - that if those hard days could have created good memories in my kids, then it was all worth it....
Those assignments also taught me that when there was no way out, the best thing was to just get started - do one thing and then another, and then another.....and slowly, the windows and doors just open..... . (When the final performance was ready, I could hardly believe the way it all began!!!)
So, after all, the demanding Head did have a place in my life - the assignment taught me to take an unknown task, a challenge, hard conditions, and turn something beautiful out of it - besides the fact, of course, that I too learnt so much - from the kids and from the whole task of putting up a musical...an affirmation for me of me, and memories for my students...
Really - it is true - no experience goes to waste - it does surface somewhere, in some form, to complete a hitherto jagged facade in the heart...and no matter how long it takes, but hardships do return as sweet-smelling bouquets...and something good does come out of everything - bad and sad, good and happy....