Yesterday we got the news that Katarina Henryson, founder and 30+ year alto for The Real Group, is leaving in July to pursue other musical journeys.
Meanwhile, a fellow music teacher told me recently that after 35 years of teaching, and a plan for 5-10 more as recently as last year, he’s now going “year to year” because he’s ready for other things: travel, a new career, family.
Both of these decisions are canny – they are moving on not because the work they are doing isn’t still brilliant; it most certainly is. I think they are both moving on because the work of their jobs has transitioned from feeling like play to feeling like work. Or worse – from engaging to boring.
In a recent podcast conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert, John Hodgman said, “I wrote three books of fake facts…that was my utter passion. I thought, when I was writing those books, ‘If I could do this for the rest of my life, I’ll be set.’ And by the time I was writing the third one, I realized, ‘I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. I know how to make these jokes, I’ve seen the DNA of these jokes at the cellular level, and it’s boring to me.'”
Both Katarina and the teacher have new plans, ideas, and dreams for what comes next for them: they give me inspiration to grapple with those questions over my own career; and of course, I can’t wait to see and hear what comes next for both!