Before I got married and had children, I received a 2 year degree from a Jr. College. I thought I would continue my education but our family came very fast and I put my education on hold thinking that I might never finish my degree yet hoping someday I could return and do so.
Once all my children were of school age, I started working for a school district so I could have the same hours and holidays as them, which worked out nicely. During this time my mother came to live with us a few years after my father passed away. After a year of working, I applied for a different job in the district and was hired as an aide in the new program designed for Special Needs Preschoolers. I got the job and really enjoyed working with these sweet children and with the teachers, speech language specialist and all the other staff members.
One year we had a sweet little girl that had the cutest smile and liked to participate in each activity but could not communicate through speech. One day I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before. She was sitting next to me during circle time and we were singing a song. She sat and bounced to the beat of the music however no singing or words came from her. We had been singing something like Mary Had a Little Lamb but when we stopped something amazing happened. When it was quiet she started humming on tune Mary Had a Little Lamb all by herself. I was trying to figure out how she did it, why she did it and it totally amazed me. When her Mother came to pick her up I related the story of what I had observed her doing and asked the mother if she knew why she did what she did. Her Mother said, yes, she has music therapy in our home. I asked her what Music Therapy was and to my surprise it really sparked an interest in me. I went home and did a bit of research on it and before that semester was over I had made an appointment with the director of Music Therapy at the university in my city, Arizona State University (ASU).
It was a difficult time in my life because my mother who had been living with us had died and I was having a hard time. I went back in my mind of conversations that I had had with my mother about a few of her regrets in her life, one being not getting as much education as she would have liked. She was born in 1905 and when she was a teenager in Los Angeles she worked to help support her family financially, all her siblings worked and times were tough in the 1920’s. She was a smart person but never graduated from high school or went on to college. It stuck with me deep in my heart for many years, so my resolve to get a college degree was partially to honor my mother, kind of like I could do it for both of us.
This was one of the busiest times of my life. I continued to work part-time when I enrolled at ASU with a full schedule of classes and began to care for an Aunt and Uncle that were getting older and needed a bit of help. My oldest daughter and her husband had just had a baby but lived in another state, I had a son in his early twenties, a daughter who was out of state attending college, another son who was a freshman in highschool and my youngest son who has Down Syndrome was in middle school,l so my plate was full. I was also president of a children’s organization for my church, which took part of my time. It was a lot on my plate. I had been at ASU for a couple of years when one day I received a call from my oldest daughter saying that she and her husband were going to quit their jobs and come live with us to help her dad and me get through this time in our lives. The idea of sacrificing their dreams was overwhelming to me, but she wanted me to fulfill my dream of becoming a Music Therapist. They moved in shortly with their little one year old and helped more than anyone could ever imagine. I am still in awe to this day of their unselfishness.
School was not easy for me but my desire to proceed was greater than the challenges that crossed my path. Always keeping an eye on the final goal helped me to accomplish that. It didn’t hurt that my daughter was very smart and she tutored me in math to get me through. Talk about role reversal.
Seeing that one little girl hum a simple tune stirred an interest so strong for me to pursue something I love and has filled my life with much joy.
Thinking back even as a child myself, remembering my thoughts of what I wanted to be when I grew up, never had I ever realized that there was such a degree as Music Therapy. To then get a job working with preschoolers, having that experience of witnessing a child who couldn’t speak but who could hum a tune, talking to her mother, pursuing my deep interest in what Music Therapy was, then working hard to obtain the degree, made me so happy that I followed through. The years I spent improving my craft, developing skills, sharing with others, and growing a business has given me a lot of joy. I love the feeling of my acquired confidence and accomplishment, something I struggled with earlier in my life. I have learned that hard work and commitment leads to satisfying experiences.
