The Nostalgia of New Things

It is with a sense of nostalgia for new things that I have to keep reminding myself of who I used to be, and who I became, after I left my beloved U.S. Marines in 1992. I was already a cellist before I enlisted. I became a "man of letters," and a "writer of sorts" (for the lack of better terms) after I left the military in 1992.

From 1996 to 1999/2000 I played with the Washington Symphony Orchestra and met an incredible number of amazing people. I taught cello privately on and off while in the DC area and then for a brief stint when I moved back where I am today. This past summer I got a brush with my past again when I gave a lesson to a former writing student who has recently picked up the cello in college. So she begins now to see me with different eyes, I suppose, and I get engrossed in this feeling of nostalgia in my new role with her. She is a fast learner, and has her own teacher where she goes to school, but we'll be having lessons on and off when she comes home to visit.

This morning I was listening to Mozart's Requiem, which was the last piece I actually played in DC with the orchestra. I remember feeling it was a fitting piece for my departure. I was giving my farewell concert, and it seemed that another stage in my life was coming to an end. That was in the spring of 2000!