It was wonderful! I was given three sections of private piano class during the Spring Semester of 2013. This could bring in a lot of money. Ohhh, where to put all the students? That was the problem. (I had more than I could receive.) How many would stay registered for the class? Would any of them show up for lessons?
I hadn't had much success in a previous semester, so these were valid questions, and I had seen some extra money when I had a class previously, but nothing significant. These classes, however, turned out to be a good collection of students. I taught all of them the Jon Schmidt method of reading notes on the first meeting with each of them, and they made good progress. Everyone performed at the final semester recital, which I participated in for the first time, so I felt like I finally was a part of the private instruction group.
I made many friends and acquaintances amongst this group of students that I will remember all my life. One girl got married during the semester - Melissa Perry. Another got engaged - Sharlene Jacob. Another tried on several occasions to break up with her boyfriend, but I talked her into staying with him - Carla Pintado. And there were two music majors who needed to learn how to navigate the piano - Josh Norman and Thomas ??. And four other students just learned because they wanted to - Joel Oliva, Rachael Dick, Kyle Keyes, Miranda Indra-Winterowd, and Lori Tonge. Sharlene made the most progress. She finished the entire book and learned to play with a lot of beauty.
By the end of the semester I had earned quite a bit of extra money. I wondered what to do with it. I added some to savings to be ready for the summer months. I established an emergency fund according to Dave Ramsey's system. The rest was open for suggestion: tile my kitchen floor, travel, add to my retirement fund, carpet several rooms, repair things around the house, pay off debt (my car, Erin's braces). It wasn't long before it was made known to me what it would be spent for. One day my furnace quit working. The repair cost would be $2461. Shoot! All of it gone in one fell swoop.
How miffed I was, but how grateful I must be as well, to be able to take care of that emergency. We will spend the summer in comfort as well as subsequent years to come, and I didn't go in debt to take care of it, nor did I lose my emergency fund.
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