5 Year Goal

So I was talking to Doc and Stevie B about the future of the UOG Music Department and it really got  me thinking. I mean, I’ve always been thinking about the future, but it’s mostly been a blur for me… Like, I really can’t see exactly where I’m going to be 5 years from now. Doc says that he has about 6+ years to retire, so he jokingly (or not?) mentioned to me that I should get my DMA so I can come back in time to teach!

Little backstory… I haven’t really had an entire day off since I graduated in Spring ’08. I teach lessons every day. Sunday/Saturday are my busiest teaching days. I do weddings in the daytime M-F. Even if I don’t have weddings, I teach. If I have a full day of weddings, chances are, I have a full day of teaching after that, and to top it off, a rehearsal. The money is good and the music is fun, but seriously, I want to have at least ONE day off out of the week 5 years from now.

Fast forward to this summer. When I went to the states for Jimmy’s grad, I visited the sax professor Dr. Radnofsky at New England Conservatory about the possibility of going there for Grad school. I didn’t bring my sax which disappointed him a bit, but he was VERY understanding and let me play one of his saxes. He was also impressed that I came from Guam, which was a plus for him because he travels often to smaller places trying to popularize classical saxophone playing. Anyway, I played for him and he was fairly impressed by my flexibility and my background. He told me that if I learned two pieces on a list of ten that he gave me, I would be in.

Yet another tangent (don’t worry, I am going somewhere with this). This year, I became a part of two new web companies: DRT Web Solutions with my friends and Gecko Labs, LLC with my brother and his best friend. I have been programming websites since high school, and I haven’t stopped learning new techniques and technologies ever since. I am well versed in XHTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, etc…

So here are all my career possibilities at the moment (in no particular order):

• Running my recording studio (for those who don’t know me, I started it in 2005)
• Running my music store/distribution/repair (same, 2005)
• Wedding Pianist
• Music Teacher (private lessons)
• Grad School
• Web Companies
• Band Teacher (I haven’t totally pushed it aside)
• Gigging musician

I have several scheduling categories for myself: My day-job schedule, my night/weekend schedule, and my late-night schedule. Right now:

• Day Job: Wedding Pianist Full-time (40 weddings/mo)
• Nights/weekends: Teaching lessons
• Late-night: none

This is where I would like to be 5 years from now

• Day Job: Web programmer Full-time
• Day Job: Emergency Wedding Pianist (~5 to ~20 weddings/mo depending on season)
• Saturday: Teaching Lessons (a total of 8)
• Late-night: Gig one or two nights a week
• Sunday: DAY OFF

My web career is picking up quickly, so this doesn’t seem too far off to achieve 5 years from now. If I’m nowhere near this goal in 3 years, though, I am really going to consider going to Grad school to get my DMA in Music (sax) and being a full time Sax teacher/university professor while being a part-time web programmer.