Update on my new course

Hi everyone! I have been missing in action in blogging for a little while. I have been workin hon creating and publishing my first piano course. And I’m excited to announce that I have finally published my first piano course. You can click here to access my course. It includes an introduction to myself, how to choose the correct piano for learning, how to practice correctly, and the basics to the piano. I can’t wait to begin marketing it more online. I am so excited to make more courses in the future. Thank you so much for always supporting me. I wouldn’t be able to be where I am without this blogging community.

Thank you so much for all of the new followers 🙏 I am almost at 600 followers

Truly, with all of my heart, I am so thankful for this blogging community. I know that I have been inconsistent with posting on here, but I have never left this platform since I created this blog. Pocketfuloflearning means so much to me and I would never leave this blog. Even when I don’t post for weeks, I am still checking the notifications and updates for this blog. I have the WordPress app on the home screen of my phone. This matters to me and I am eternally grateful for all of the support that I have received.

Starting this blog from its first inception was a scary decision. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to make a decision that would change my life forever. I have met fellow bloggers that are so good at their craft and are the nicest people ever. I’m not even exaggerating. When I wrote my post about being estranged from my family, I was afraid of being judged for my decision. I realized that I had nothing to be afraid of because everyone ultimately supported me. It was the most difficult situation of my life and it broke me down seeing how everyone still continued to support me. I think it’s difficult to share my life so openly on here, but this community is different. There is so much support and love here that I don’t see on other platforms.

Life continues to surprise me. Year after year, I find that I’m still learning about myself. And I hope that you will continue to write on your own blog. Sharing my life and writing has been one of the best experiences that I’ve had. I hope to inspire others who may want to start a blog to begin writing.

Thank you again for all of the support. I know that I am constantly thanking my followers, but I would be nothing without you all. Thank you so much.

Update On My Latest Student Issue With Piano Lessons

I have been trying to update everyone as much as I can. I feel that it is necessary because what happened to me can help prevent someone else from being taken advantage of. I told the parent that I paid for the exam fees. He paid me for half of the lesson payment and the exam fees. He still owes me the full payment for the missed lesson, but he refuses to pay for it. I gave him a payment due date. And he flipped out of control. He began threatening me by saying that he would find another piano teacher. I learned that he has began searching for another piano teacher. He posted on Facebook. Little does he know, he are actually friends on Facebook! I don’t know how he doesn’t know that. I saw his post about an hour ago. And it’s amusing to me that he would blatantly lie about me to everyone.

All in all, I am okay from the situation. I think that I made it out of the entire issue completely unscathed. He had given me the exam fee money that I had paid an advance for. And I can replace the time slot with a student that will pay much more for the time. I was charging them 50% of what I usually charge for the time. I was charging him $30 for an hour of lessons while I now I charge $60 for an hour. He paid me $15 and refused to pay me for the full hour of lessons that he missed. In summary, he only owes me $15, but he is not going to pay me the money.

If I have learned anything from this situation, I’ve learned that people will continue to look down upon you no matter what you do. I traveled to their home for lessons, gave free piano books for all the piano levels (seven books worth about $70), two recitals every year, free piano rehearsals that were also lessons, leniency for sick days, and I only charged them $15 for 30 minutes of lessons. The current rate for 30 minute lessons in our area is $30. I did all of this because I believed that we had a laid-back understanding/respect. I was wrong.

I will begin trying to come up with solutions on how to recuperate the time and money that I lost. I will be working hard on trying to make sure that my family and I will continue to be stable. Financial worries are stressful, but I’m so proud that I stood up for myself. For so long, I was afraid of taking a stand on what I believed was right for myself. I would like to thank my husband for giving me the strength to stand up for myself. I will be okay and I hope that anyone who is going through hardship knows that they will be okay also.

As always, thank you so much for reading. I truly appreciate it.

This week has been tough

Hi everyone, I am writing this while sitting in my car waiting for my next lesson. I’ve been working really hard all week teaching and creating piano videos. It has been tough, but I love what I do. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Something interesting happened this week and I can’t decide if it’s because I constantly have let people walk all over me. Have you ever felt taken advantage of because you look younger or because people don’t view you as capable? I think this is the story of my life. I am constantly looked down upon by people in my life and I don’t like it. I don’t want to be the victim in this story, but I have to stand up for myself. I’m not saying “woe is me.” I want to find the silver lining in my own story. If I can somehow stop this from happening again, then I can finally move on from everything that has happened.

I have a student that is a child of my friend’s friend. We’re not really too close and our entire closeness is only be wise I teach their child the piano. I have been teaching their child for more than 2-3 years now. It has been awhile and I can honestly say that their child is a great student. They are nice and polite to me always.

I went to their house for our usual lesson this week. They weren’t home. Their house isn’t too far from my previous Student’s house. It’s about a 15 minute drive from the other house. It’s not a lot of miles, but some may consider it a decent distance. I parked right outside the house and I texted their grandpa that I was there at the house. They texted me that they were sorry and that they weren’t home. It was okay for me. However, since gas prices have increased, I have felt the need to still ask for payment when I make the drive and they’re not home. For all of my students, they will pay me the full lesson price even when they miss the lesson. I don’t always ask, but they pay me anyways. It’s a trust that I have worked so hard to build for many years.

This time however, the parent refused to pay me the full lesson price. They said that they will only pay half. I was torn with what to do about the missing lesson. I want to maintain the relationship that I have with the parents, but I am hurt by how they don’t respect me. I did not miss the lesson. Driving, planning, bringing materials, registering them for the appropriate examinations, and making lesson plans takes effort on my part. And it’s not just showing up to teach. Teachers work tirelessly to make things happen for their students. And on the other hand, I want to drop them immediately as clients. I don’t depend on them for my income because I can always obtain new students. I have more than enough students in my studio and losing one doesn’t affect me at all. Even more importantly, they are using my discounted rate. It is 50% of my usual rate. And they still can’t pay me for the full hour that I wasted.

I ended up sitting in my car on another empty street in the neighborhood for an hour. It wasn’t worth the gas and time to drive back home and then to drive back. I was wondering to myself how I let myself to be treated like this. Even if I continue to teach them, I will always have this thought at the back of my mind about how they treated me. I will keep everyone updated on what happens. I have to go to my next lesson now. Thank you so much for reading and I appreciate it a lot.

Self-Care Days Are The Best Days

This won’t be a long post, but I want to remind everyone to take some time off of work for yourself. Today, I watched an entire movie by myself. And I’ve never felt better. I can’t recommend self-care days highly enough.

Also, thank you for all of the support on this blog. I truly appreciate it. I’ll see you in the next blog post. Happy Tuesday!

If you want to read more, click here. Thanks!