Today, I was able to sit down with my mentor, music director and therapist, George Thompson about various topics surrounding his job and his pathway towards getting to where he is now.
Q: How did you end up doing the job that you do?
A: I went to school to be an anthropologist, got a degree in anthropology and then found out I couldn't get a job. So, I got a degree in sociology because there are a lot of social work jobs and I did a minor in music and the whole time I was in jazz band and stuff but I never thought I'd work in music so I just got a minor because I was already taking so many classes in music. Made and album when I was 19, produced it during my freshman year in college and traveled throughout the northwest performing at festivals and stuff like that. Long story short, full circle, made a second album in New York whole I was doing social work. My clinical director saw me coming to work every day with my guitar because I gigged every night when I lived in New York because I was trying to really make a good splash in New York City. She asked me if I used it with the kids and I replied no, I am performing every night, and she said well why don't you use it with the kids? We were working with kids with psychiatric issues at that point in their life with anything ranging from abuse or any other type of violence. So I began to use guitar to start to reach out to them and having a bunch of kids from Brooklyn learning to rap and wanting to rap to the guitar. That's when I started seeing the power in music and then I was gonna get signed to a label in New York and I kinda freaked out and I had some money saved because I basically sold the rights to all my music so I was technically a songwriter when I wanted to be a performer. So I ended up traveling to Europe for six months and from there I moved to Asia and I spent two and a half years in Asia. In Thailand, Korea, China, and Japan. Then I saved some more money because it is a cash cow over there in Asia to teach. When I taught there I primarily taught literature and science for ESL students for government schools. When I was done in Asia, and moved to the states I wanted to find somewhere that was warm all year, because it was so cold in New York, so I moved here to California and within the first 4 days I landed a job here and the music program was basically non existent. I basically reached out to other people in the community and started developing a teaching method to work with people with special needs. I was gonna quit within the first year because of the fact that I lived in La Jolla and I was commuting every day and it was just not worth it because the money I was spending on gas was what I was earning. What pretty much brought me here was always living my life in service where I was always helping people. I worked in all kinds of dynamics in education and then always trying to manage this other life at night, being a gigging musician. I put a proposal together for one of the heads of TERI and said if you can move me to full time, and give me more latitude to do what I need to do, I can make this program really grow.
Q: How did you end up doing the job that you do?
A: I went to school to be an anthropologist, got a degree in anthropology and then found out I couldn't get a job. So, I got a degree in sociology because there are a lot of social work jobs and I did a minor in music and the whole time I was in jazz band and stuff but I never thought I'd work in music so I just got a minor because I was already taking so many classes in music. Made and album when I was 19, produced it during my freshman year in college and traveled throughout the northwest performing at festivals and stuff like that. Long story short, full circle, made a second album in New York whole I was doing social work. My clinical director saw me coming to work every day with my guitar because I gigged every night when I lived in New York because I was trying to really make a good splash in New York City. She asked me if I used it with the kids and I replied no, I am performing every night, and she said well why don't you use it with the kids? We were working with kids with psychiatric issues at that point in their life with anything ranging from abuse or any other type of violence. So I began to use guitar to start to reach out to them and having a bunch of kids from Brooklyn learning to rap and wanting to rap to the guitar. That's when I started seeing the power in music and then I was gonna get signed to a label in New York and I kinda freaked out and I had some money saved because I basically sold the rights to all my music so I was technically a songwriter when I wanted to be a performer. So I ended up traveling to Europe for six months and from there I moved to Asia and I spent two and a half years in Asia. In Thailand, Korea, China, and Japan. Then I saved some more money because it is a cash cow over there in Asia to teach. When I taught there I primarily taught literature and science for ESL students for government schools. When I was done in Asia, and moved to the states I wanted to find somewhere that was warm all year, because it was so cold in New York, so I moved here to California and within the first 4 days I landed a job here and the music program was basically non existent. I basically reached out to other people in the community and started developing a teaching method to work with people with special needs. I was gonna quit within the first year because of the fact that I lived in La Jolla and I was commuting every day and it was just not worth it because the money I was spending on gas was what I was earning. What pretty much brought me here was always living my life in service where I was always helping people. I worked in all kinds of dynamics in education and then always trying to manage this other life at night, being a gigging musician. I put a proposal together for one of the heads of TERI and said if you can move me to full time, and give me more latitude to do what I need to do, I can make this program really grow.