So, in the last segment we took a look at how wrockers are faring in college. This time, we move on to a much less enjoyable part of life – working.

Even with the annoyance of homework and tests, college is generally thought to be a fun time. Work? Not so much. You might be able to find a professor willing to grin and bear it when you miss class (if they even notice), but your boss isn’t likely to have the same reaction. Sure, there’s usually vacation. But you’ll be hard pressed to find a job where you get spring break or summers off. As Jarrod of Gred and Forge told me, “I have to go there [work] on a regular basis. As in daily.”

Unless, of course, you are a teacher, like The Quaffle Kids‘ and Neville’s Diary‘s Bryce. He does have summers off, from being a music teacher, but he also directs the middle and high school bands. This means things like band camp and summer parades – things that he successfully managed to schedule around Wrock Chicago this year. “Otherwise I wouldn’t [have] had the chance to play. And since I performed so much that day, I would have really missed out on tons of fun.” Jarrod isn’t quite so lucky. He used nearly all of his vacation over the last year and a half for wrock-related events. That’s about 25 days. “A week for Terminus, a week for Wrockstock, over a week touring with The Remus Lupins, etc…”

I also spoke with Jace from Catchlove. He spent last year doing wizard rock full-time, so balancing work and wrock is a little new for him. His new gig does offer paid vacation though, so he “can take time off for cons and such and get paid for it!” He also managed to find a job where he only works Monday through Thursday, thus weekend events are easy to plan around.

Keep in mind that responsibilities tend to multiply as you get older. You might get married or buy a house. Your job might be something that you went to school for years to get. These are all things that aren’t too easy to give up, either. As Jarrod said, “Excessive touring can’t be good for a marriage or a mortgage payment,” a valid point that I’m sure his wife is pleased to hear. Bryce had a few reasons why he wouldn’t give up his job for wrock, but none more touching than, “I really enjoy being with the kids and watching them grow and go on to do neat things. I would really miss that.” Many wrockers’ goal is to expose kids to music, and Bryce gets to do that in both worlds.

Some of our college wrockers found fans in their fellow classmates. Could the same be true in the world of real-life Muggle jobs? Jarrod told me that “at the new bank I started with recently, everyone found out [about Gred and Forge] because they Googled me. My boss, a Senior Vice President of the bank said, at our first meeting, ‘I know about your band… Your other band.’” Jace’s coworkers “know I’m in a band, but I have yet to tell them exactly what type of band it is. I’m sure it will come up eventually.” Bryce told me the librarian at his school has listened to his music. “A good deal of my students know, and some have even bought Quaffle Kids CDs. I think that’s pretty rad.” I would have to agree.

These guys manage to do all this while still dealing with the day-to-day of cooking, doing yard work, making cartoons, and watching Arrested Development. So while maybe work isn’t so much fun, getting to have wizard rock as an added hobby seems like a pretty sweet deal.