Today, I told the pastor of the Church I work at that I will not be renewing my contract come the end of June, 2006. Now, this may seem like a long time in advance, but trust me, it will take them a LONG time (at least, I think it will) to find someone suitable for the position. The problem with the hiring is going to find someone with the ability to keep the choir where it is (which is pretty decent) and be able to move it further ahead. There are many qualified people out there I'm sure, but the issue will be finding someone who will do it for the money the church is offering. I take a bit of a lesser salary, and I'm ok with that because this is not my life's line of work, I don't have a degree in this area. It's cool....but not all people will feel that way.

To some who will read this, it may seem like a very sudden move, but it's something I've been kicking around for awhile. There are several reasons why I chose to leave, but the main one is I just don't enjoy what I'm doing anymore, and when that happens, it's time to move on. For a long time, well over a year in fact, I have been very frustrated with my job, and I feel like I've been doing it half assed. That's not really my style of doing things, and it bothered me. A bigger factor though, is that over the 6 years I've been there, a lot of the choir members have become friends of mine, and when that happens, lines get redrawn. Somewhere in the process, I lost the respect they had for me as a director....not their respect as a person, but as their director. I have been questioned, and commented to/on and many petty issues have arisen, and I am just so very over it ALL. You have to have a certain amount of authority to do this job, and I don't enjoy mine being called into question. Not to be dramatic, but that's just the way it is. There are certain jobs you can only go so far in, and this is the end of the line for this one. It wasn't an easy decision to make, and it will certainly be strange the first Sunday morning I wake up and don't have to go to church. I'll probably never NOT think about the St. Anne Novena on July 26th each year. I'm sure I will keep many of the friendships I've made at St. Anne's, especially Cathy and Chriss..my gals!!...and for that I really am thankful for the time I was there!