I can't figure out if it's the end or beginning....

This year has marked the beginning of the end of my life as I have known it. I quit teaching last June, and I have spent the past 10 months doing the craziest thing ever - working in an office! I never would have expected it, but it has given me time to figure out what has to end, and how to begin my life anew.

My own personal Festival Express is about to begin. My aim is to work in and around what I love and what makes me feel good. That would be music. I have always surrounded myself with musicians, I fancy myself one sometimes, and I know that music fills my soul and music feeds my heart. This where I need to be. I'm partial to the Jam-band genre, my heart lying heavily with the likes of the Grateful Dead and their cohorts. So, I have put in my 2 weeks notice and am preparing to hit the road.

This won't be like "summer tour" of old for me; selling T-shirts, food, jewelery or juices in the parking lot to pay my way. I am making an investment in myself to sell merch and food, monitor wrist bands, impart information, direct traffic or whatever else I am asked to do by the volunteer crew chiefs at any one of 8 or so different festivals I will be attending. I am also thrilled to be working with The Rex Foundation's Community Caravan at several of these events. My hope is that my work will speak for itself, and that I will end up with a job in this crazy industry.

I have always had a plan, with a definite path; and I have always known the steps I've needed to take to get to what I thought was the pot of proverbial gold at the end.... but that pot has always eventually revealed itself to something different than I had imagined it to be. Now - I am just following my heart and going after my dream, and hoping to find a new way to navigate the path. Maybe this pot of gold really shines.... and maybe it's filled with fish soup. I won't know until I find out for myself. I sure don't know what I'm going for, but I'm gonna' go for it for sure.