We’re currently (or about to be) consumed with the performance of final concerts, the calculation of grades, the smoothing of students’ end-of-the-year emotional melt-downs, and attending to all of the miscellany associated with shuttering a choral program for the summer. Soon, the rehearsal hall will be dark and we’ll be off campus trying desperately to uncurl our toes from the daily rigors of our craft.
Now is the time to leave a message in the bottle.
At this moment, the challenges of the season are fresh in your mind. Perhaps it’s a need for some changes to your rehearsal procedures, a new series of warm-ups, a revised approach to vocal color, or some administrative matter. Whatever it might be, there is a possibility that you could forget about these concerns once you have removed yourself from the immediacy of the daily rehearsal structure.
Pour a cup of coffee, sit down, and write yourself a note; literally, a letter to your future self. Remind Future You how you are feeling and what you are thinking at this point in the season and how you would like to change a few things in the autumn. Then leave the note on your desk for Future You to find. Have a little fun and leave it in a bottle!
When you return to your work space in the late summer, you will read the note and be reminded of where you are at this time. Given the clarity that comes from a little rest, some of your current concerns may appear to be the result of the predictable fatigue that comes at the end of a season. Others however, will continue to resonate. Those are the areas that will benefit next season from your fresh energy and renewed objectivity.
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