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Tomorrow is my day 1 at my community college as a full time student. My retirement was supposed to be last Friday but was asked to stay on one more week. The company wants me to stay as a consultant. So it was not completely clean exit ad I hoped for. But the important thing is that it is actually happening.

I am taking theory 1 for music majors, Class piano 3, Piano private instruction, violin, community orchestra and French. I’m extremely excited. I will be the oldest student in the class I’m sure. Wish me luck.

It's wonderful! Good luck!

I retired about three years ago. My former boss has called me three times in the last three years, asking if I'd consider coming back to work, full time or part time. My answer all three times was no...

Wishing you all the best in your retirement, and your new beginning with your college courses!

Good luck!

Rick

That's so exciting! Lucky you. I bet you have a wonderful time.

Good news for you to be doing something you always wanted to do.

Good luck...

I wish you so much luck FarmGirl, not that you need it! You could change your name to CollegeGirl.
You know that as a consultant you can demand quite a different hourly rate than as an employee?

Good luck Farmgirl! I'm sure it will be amazing!

I went back as a consultant (working remotely just a few days a week) after I retired for about a year and a half. You make more money, since the employer is not paying additional costs like health insurance, but you still have to have health insurance from somewhere. Ultimately I just got tired of it and wanted to be fully retired. Good luck!

Sam

Yea! You'll love it

That sounds wonderful, FarmGirl! Enjoy every minute of your new adventure!

Sounds great Farmgirl. I'm sure you are going to love your retirement ! New beginnings, how exciting is that?

FarmGirl, wow! Congrats on your retirement, and how exciting about the program you're starting!

You and EbonyK can compare notes once she gets started.

/jealous.

Most excellent, Farmgirl! How exciting for you!

I did a 'cold' retirement and except for having to sign some legal documents related to work I had done, I didn't look back. While I didn't go back to school for a degree in music, I did take all the music theory, music history, and applied piano courses available to me from the community college nearby. It was a blast. And I was easily the oldest person in class. As I've quipped in previous posts, if you added up the ages of three of the other students in my music classes, I was still older.

Yeah! Happy times ahead. You certainly planned well. I look forward to hearing your music journey. I wonder, like Sam, you will drop the consultancy as it will get in the way of your new journey!

OMG, I think this is absolutely wonderful, congratulations!! I am also looking at a program that will start in the fall, it’s such an exciting prospect and I’m so glad that you’re doing this. Very important to enrich our lives no matter what the age! 😍👊👏🎹❤️

I’m still panicking a bit, LOL!!! 😂😂😂

May I add a short warning amongst all these happy encouragements? The first week, or the first month, back at school can be quite overwhelming - especially when you haven't gone to school for a long time. Just getting back into the habit of regular lessons and homework may not be all that easy. So in case you feel during your first weeks that it is all too much, hang in there, give it some time. It'll be fine.

Oh my! Such a dream life starting there! Enjoy

And when your French is up to scratch and you fancy a holiday, you can join me on a residential music course in a French castle! I'm attending one for the first time in February and I'm sure it will be great!

Congratulations on your new adventure, FarmGirl! How did your first day go?

Thank you everyone!

My first week at school is almost over!
I completely enjoy every class. I almost want to drop consulting work but I kind of feel responsible to help them out at least for this one project.

So here’s my short report.
The theory class is absolutely wonderful. I took theory 1 for music majors. Monday, Wednesday snd Fridays are for theory, and Tuesday and Wednesday are aural perception (ear training, sight singing etc). This is something I really needed.

Also on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we have class piano. Since my principal instrument is piano, I was allowed to start at Class piano III. In the same class there is another pianist who started one semester ahead of me. He is in Class piano IV.
This is a great class. Not only I can learn sight reading but also I am learning to play in different keys. It will also require me to add accompaniment using the given chord.

The rest, I’m taking community orchestra to fulfill my ensemble performance requirement. I thought it would be a good chance to brush up my violin. I have 30 min violin lesson and 1 hour piano lesson. I will come back and report on it during the weekend.

Farmgirl, that sounds like a dream come true! My other instrument is violin as well, but after a couple years, I decided that there was no way I could keep up both violin and piano, so I dropped it. How wonderful that you’re able to take all of these classes, it sounds so exciting and I’m so happy for you! Today is my lesson day and the day that I take my Eastman plan and questions to my teacher, lol. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn’t think I’m completely insane!

Enjoy everything, that sounds so wonderful and I’m sure you’re going to have a fantastic time!! 😍😍😍

Farmgirl, that sounds fantastic!

EbonyK, definitely come back and give us an update after you talk to your teacher!