The Long Answer to "Why are you moving to Arizona?"

 

          Five years ago, Isaac was hired to teach full-time music at Nibley Park, a K-8 school in Salt Lake City School District.  He wanted to teach elementary general music instead of jr. high or high school choir. We felt fortunate that Isaac was able to find a job teaching general music in an elementary school in Utah. The principal at Nibley Park worked it out to where he would pay half of Isaac’s salary to keep him there full time and the school district would pay the other half.  While Salt Lake City School District hires music teachers to teach music in their schools, Isaac was the only elementary music teacher in the district that got to stay at one school and run its music program.

            Isaac is an outstanding music teacher and I will greatly miss attending the musical performances at Nibley Park. He incorporated his ideas that went against the traditional ways of teaching choral music. He started the Rock-N-Roll History Choir and taught the kids popular music songs. At his concerts you would see a small student rock band on the side accompanying the choir with drums and electric guitars. Many times, Isaac accompanied the choir with his ukulele or by pounding away on the piano.  The audience would clap to the beat as they heard songs by popular music groups such as Coldplay, Daft Punk, and the Beatles.  On a few occasions, the choir filmed a music video to go along with their songs. It was amazing to witness how empowered the students were by performing songs they enjoyed and how creative they could be when they were encouraged to be creative. After 5 years, Nibley Park had a popular reputation for its music program, much thanks to Isaac.

            Last summer, the music director at the district informed Isaac that instead of replacing the teacher that retired, Isaac would take over and teach music 3 hours a week at another Elementary school. Isaac agreed, but felt depressed because he could see the writing on the wall. This was the beginning of the end of his job as he knew it—which was staying at Nibley Park full time and running the music program for its entire student body. Leaving to teach at another school for 3 hours doesn’t sound so bad, but Isaac knew that each year the district would add more schools for him to teach at and he would no longer be able to stay at Nibley Park full time. There was also a new principal at the school and he wasn’t as supportive of the arts program as the one who hired Isaac. Isaac had mentioned to me he should get a PhD, but I dismissed it because it seemed like an impossible idea. Then, last August we went to Louisiana to visit Isaac’s Dad who teaches English Education at LSU. When we went to his ward, I noticed about 5 young families who introduced themselves and said they had just moved in and that they were there to earn a PhD at LSU.  That immediately caught my attention. Some of them moved there from Provo and it was encouraging to see other people making a big change for a future career. That week, my father-in-law invited them over for a family night BBQ. I asked the families’ several questions about earning a PhD and what that would entail. That night, my head was spinning as we all discussed what it would mean for Isaac to get a PhD—we would have to sell our home, downsize, move to another state, and forgo at least three years of his income. I was in tears thinking about having to make so many changes. That night, I read a talk in the Ensign by Russell M. Nelson. He said “Often people ask me what it’s like to be a doctor. They ask, “How long were you in school?” Well, it was a long time. From the time I got my medical degree until the time I sent my first bill for professional services rendered was 12½ years. It was a long time, but how old would I have been 12½ years later if I weren’t doing that? Exactly the same. So you might as well strive to become all that you can become.” After reading this I thought, “Well we can move and Isaac can get a PhD now while the boys are still young, or we can keep putting it off , grow older,  and be in the same position three years from now.” I decided for myself that now was the right time. I told Isaac that the best thing would be to take the GRE, apply for a teaching assistantship-which means he would get a tuition waiver and a small salary to teach undergraduate courses --and see what happens. He agreed.

            Once we came back to Utah, Isaac got in touch with one of his old professors at the U of U and talked to her about getting a PhD.  She gave him a list of 4 schools that had great music programs, one of them being Arizona State University where she earned her doctorate. We never would have considered ASU had she not recommended it.  She said she loved living in Tempe and considers her years living there one of her happiest times in life. That was comforting to hear.

            Isaac took the GRE in November and submitted applications to ASU, the University of Washington, UT Austin, and Louisiana State University.  His admission was denied to UT Austin fairly early on so we just focused on the other three schools. He flew to each campus and interviewed for a teaching assistantship. We knew that the University of Washington would be able to offer the most money plus health benefits so we were anxious for him to get a job there. However, after the campus visit and interview, Isaac didn’t feel like he got the assistantship. His final interview was at ASU.

            Surprisingly, when Isaac came home from Tempe, he was so excited. He said the interview went very well, the staff was very organized, and they loved his ideas about music education. The only drawback was that they wouldn’t be able to offer a big living stipend after his tuition waiver for his teaching assistantship. We felt sad that the school he loved the most would be the one to offer the least amount of money.

            Over the next few weeks, Isaac began hearing back from the schools. LSU had accepted him into the PhD program and offered him a teaching assistantship. The stipend they offered, however, was terribly low and ended up being only half of what ASU offered.  So, now what we thought would be the lowest offer was now the best offer.  We had not heard from the University of Washington yet and we knew it had more money than ASU so if they offered Isaac an assistantship, it would definitely be a better offer than ASU.  At this point, we were playing the waiting game. We had an offer from ASU and were waiting to hear from Washington. We felt conflicted because Isaac didn’t have a positive experience at the University of WA, but the prospect of having more money was appealing. ASU put on the pressure for Isaac to accept their offer by the end of the week and he told them he was still waiting to hear from the University of Washington.  Well, two days later, he received an email from The University of Washington and they told him that his admission was denied.  We celebrated because that meant we didn’t have to make a difficult decision about ASU. It was clearly the best offer and it felt meant to be.  Plus, it is the closest to Utah.

            Since then, we’ve been moving forward with our plans and are feeling more excited about it. We’ve since learned that Isaac’s job at Nibley Park would have been reduced to him staying there half time or even a quarter of the time. We are grateful that we are creating options for our future. I’m excited for Isaac to become a college professor and one day prepare future music educators. I’m also excited that he will be able share his ideas over the next few years and conduct research and teach undergraduate courses as part of his teaching assistantship at ASU.

            I’ve been contemplating a few things this past year. One is that when we were engaged and we had our marriage interview with my stake president, he gave us one piece of advice. It was,  “Stay out of debt.” With Isaac getting a PhD, there are two choices for us to make a living. One choice is to take out student loans and use that as our income. The other choice is for me to return to the classroom and teach full-time at an elementary school.  My patriarchal blessing promises that I will be able to help my husband achieve financial success. I took this charge seriously in college and worked hard to earn a teaching degree. I graduated, married Isaac and was able to put him through school. Little did I know, that that promise would come to pass again 10 years down the road. With my capability to support the family and my stake president’s advice to stay out of debt, I’ve made the decision to find a full-time teaching job. I’ve had two interviews and no job offer so I hope and pray that I will be able to find a job soon.  As hard as it’s been to accept the fact that I will no longer be a stay at home mom, I’ve realized what a blessing it is that I can provide for my family in times of need and that it doesn’t matter if I work full-time or not—I can still be a good mom to my two wonderful boys. It is such a privilege to be their mother and nothing can change my love for them.

            I love my husband, Isaac. He has been so supportive of me. Two years ago, he found a very part time tutoring job at his school that has worked out perfectly for me. It didn’t matter to him whether I worked or not, but he knew I wanted to earn extra money and I appreciated the fact that he was looking out for me. With this big move, he has never pressured me to do anything I didn’t want to do. As hard as it is for me, I am at peace with the decision and I know that we will be thankful we did it.