Of Bucket Lists and Bittersweet

We all have Bucket Lists, even when we may not consciously or conspicuously dwell on or display them, since having those goals, whether professional, personal, artistic, or simply relaxing and invigorating, is such a key to leading lives of ongoing growth and improvement and downright happiness. As we head toward our move to Chennai in a couple months, Sarah is about to check off one of those boxes on her own Bucket List, that of teaching internationally and living abroad. What a marvelous professional (and personal) experience to join the excellent faculty of the American International School Chennai in a country on the opposite side of the world, to lead a new life filled with anticipation and excitement for her.

Of course, the other aspect of that excitement is the bittersweet of leaving her teaching at Cherry Tree Elementary School in Carmel, where she has shared the joys of music and movement with hundreds of kids over the last seventeen years; of leaving her Associate Conductor position with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir after nearly twenty years; of leaving her post graduate level teaching at DePaul in Chicago. While all these are jobs, they are so much more than that, as Sarah has created and fostered the love of music in so many children and teachers over the years, she has developed a worldwide network of friends. Those connections she won’t be leaving!

While there has been a tang of the melancholy this year, Sarah has been able to knock out a few more items that combine that heart-tugging savory of departure with the delightful nectar of Bucket List items. The first was her conducting the Indiana Elementary Honors Choir at the IMEA Conference in Ft Wayne in January. I learned so much just watching her put those excellent young musicians through two full days of exciting and exhausting rehearsals to fine tune a program of difficult music and then perform in a beautiful concert hall. Check!

Next, Sarah lead her final concert at Cherry Tree Elementary where she has encouraged and inspired so many young people with the joy of music and movement, with her reward being so many of them continuing to love and integrate music into their lives and families. While she will miss the Cherry Tree community, the good news is that she will soon begin meeting more new faces and teaching children from all over the world at the American International School in Chennai!

Finally, just this past weekend, Sarah said farewell to the Indianapolis Children’s Choir after nearly twenty years of conducting and teaching a generation of kids. Even the ICC had been a Bucket List item for Sarah, although I hadn’t realized it. Back in the mid 90’s when we lived in Washington DC, I told her I had been contacted by a firm in Indy and we might need to consider moving back to the midwest. She beamed and said “Oh, that would be great, the ICC is fabulous and I’ve always wanted to meet Henry Leck!” It didn’t take her long to connect and after two decades, I think she can check off that box as well. The ICC family was so gracious as they celebrated Sarah’s contributions with photos of her changing hairstyles over the years — projected on the mega screen and right here: Celebration of Sarah from ICC –while the combined choirs of several hundred kids serenaded her with the song, “Friends,” including the line “. . . friends are friends forever . . .” followed by standing ovations at both concerts.

So as one chapter of Sarah’s accomplishments comes to a close, another, potentially even more exciting, is set to begin in August on the other side of the world where she’ll get to share her passion for music and to inspire children from more than 30 countries at AIS Chennai. And then let’s see, would a November presentation at the Association for Music in International Schools annual conference in, maybe, Dubai, be a good next step? Where did that Bucket go?

Author: David Hassler

David M. Hassler was fortunate enough to have become a relatively rare male Trailing Spouse when his talented wife Sarah accepted a job teaching music in the elementary division of the American International School in Chennai, India, in 2017. His role included, for more than three years there, serving as her everything wallah, but also allowed him time for exploring, discovering, and sharing new places, new faces, and new tastes around Chennai, throughout south India, and beyond. When the pandemic arrived, Sarah retired and they moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they continue to live and love life. David M. Hassler is a long-time member of the Indiana Writers Center Faculty and holds an MFA from Spalding University. His work has been published in Maize and the Santa Fe Writers' Project. He served as a Student Editor for The Louisville Review and as Technical Editor for Writing Fiction for Dummies. He is currently the Fiction Editor for Flying Island, an online literary journal. He is co-author of Muse: An Ekphrastic Trio, and Warp, a Speculative Trio, and future projects include A Distant Polyphony, a collection of linked stories about music and love, memories and loss; and To Strike a Single Hour, a Civil War novel that seeks the truth in one of P T Barnum's creations. He is a founding partner in Boulevard Press. View all posts by David Hassler