Abby Connolly
It’s no secret that teachers dedicate so much time to their students, including time outside of school. This is especially true for teachers who take on extracurricular roles, like club or music group leaders.
One man is a band teacher, and his wife recently got so fed up with his busy schedule that she left him.
He and his wife are both teachers in their early 30s. She teaches English while he is a band director for a high school marching band. During marching band season, he is extremely busy and has to attend long practices, concerts, and competitions throughout the week.
After meeting in 2018, they decided they’d like to get married pretty quickly. He wanted to wait until they got through a marching band season, and they did.
His relationship was rocky during marching band season, as he didn’t have much time to dedicate to his future wife. However, he still proposed to her, and they got married.
“We ultimately made a deal that in the fall, Wednesdays and Sundays would be reserved for us to have a date night, spend time together, etc.,” he recalled.
But then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit just a few months after they married, and many of their plans flew out the window. His wife decided she wouldn’t return to teaching for the 2021-2022 school year, but he wanted to, so he continued directing the high school marching band.
His wife attended a few of their concerts and competitions that year but wasn’t very supportive. She couldn’t understand why he wanted to dedicate so much of his time to the band and voiced her opinion often.
During this past school year, tensions grew higher between him and his wife as he continued leading the marching band. He did his best to make more time for her and drastically shortened his weekly rehearsal time, yet that wasn’t enough.
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