It feels weird even to type the words of the title of this post, because it includes the phrase “school-year.” (Not sure if any of my Topsiding friends are reading this, but here’s my shout out to y’all! HI GUYS!! Thank you so much for all the support you’ve given and continue to give me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without it!)
As some of you know, I am a musician and have been one since the age of five. It’s part of my soul and my identity. It’s part of my dreams and sometimes my nightmares. For most of the years that I’ve been I musician, I never could truly understood my craft, how to use it, where to play it, and if I even wanted it at all. A lot of this all has to do with growing up in a home with two parents as extremely passionate, classical musicians. (I would have it no other way though. It is my foundation, my home, and where I believe it should all start - classical music.) But because of a lack of maturity on my part, I had to find music again in a completely untraditional, avant-garde, and new way; which I also didn’t even know was happening at the time. I left my year with a world-reknown violinist as a private-coach in undergrad at a small Christian college in Massachusetts, with pure disgust and hatred for music. I remember I got acrylic nails for the first time ever, and it felt like I was “normal” and could finally fly away from it all…Yet, I didn’t know that years later, I would find the world of fiddling and bluegrass and that my life would change drastically...
That’s a snip-it of life around eight years ago. Corporate-America happened, Sperry Top-Sider (a place with people I will forever love) happened, and amidst it I found myself again. I found my passion. It wasn’t business and it wasn’t classical music. It was fiddling. And boy, am I pretty shitty at it right now, but I have confidence that that will change with the adventure that I’ve begun that is going back to undergraduate at Berklee College of Music.
Yes, it’s happening guys. I’m really doing it! And it wasn’t until this past week (orientation week) that I really recognized what hard work I put in the past winter. I practiced my fiddling so hard, wrote so many songs with my guitar, and am still (and will continue to be still) in the process of changing my technique and how I hear things. But I’m not going to lie, guys, I was really scared the two weeks leading up to school starting with not being at a full-time job. Of course then as soon as I walked on campus this past Sunday to go to my first orientation event, I knew I did the right thing. Everyday of orientation this week, I ride my bike (oh, my other new love that is bicycling!!) from Cambridge into the city or to the T, and I arrive at school with no fears. I belong with these insane and bizarre kids here at the school for crazy musicians. It’s so liberating! And I feel more and more blessed everyday to be there and to be taking notes even at the silly informational sessions that most of the incoming students don’t even show up to. (I’m an adult nerd, I guess.) I just can’t wait to figure it out and have real “ah-ha!” moments with music theory. (Please God, let me have that moment with theory.) I can’t wait to play with some awesome musicians and take full advantage of all the master classes and workshops that I was too afraid to do when I was a lot of my schoolmates’ ages!
ALSO, my orientation group is full of transfer students, and because I transferred the maximum amount of credits, I am a transfer students as well. I think I’m the oldest, but that’s okay! (I’m starting to point out more folks walking around campus looking more around my age as it gets closer to Monday, which is when classes start!) But guys, these folks are so interesting! There are fourteen of us total, and four of us are from the states, two being from MA. It’s just been so lovely to hear where these people come from, and why and how they got here! Best orientation group ever, if I do say so myself.
So all is going well, and hopefully after I get into a good groove I’ll find my fashion-inspirations again! Happy September Y’ALL!
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