Oh, Freshman Year...

   Hey y’all! I just want to say, WELCOME TO CONVERSE, LADIES!! Okay, now you can say you’ve officially heard those words 20,000 times. But seriously- I’m here to help you navigate college life: combating stress, dealing with music theory, and simply enjoying the small things.
   First, make friends. I was a loner in high school- the one who sat at the lunch table, alone, and read. I figured college would be no different. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as I got here I was instantly bombarded with people wanting to talk. It brought me out of my shell, and as much as I hated it, I needed it. The greatest challenge I faced my freshman year was my Music Theory class. I came from a high school that if you weren’t on the football team you did not exist. Music was not a primary focus, in terms of chorus. We had no AP Music Theory class, and the Choral department barely had enough funds to put on a concert at the end of the year. (Yet the football team gets personalized mouthpieces and a jumbo-tron. Does something seem off to you guys?) I came to college knowing absolutely nothing about music theory other than what I’d already forgotten from my piano lessons. I had to start from scratch and try and teach myself the theory everyone else knew just to keep up. It took a lot out of me, and I failed the occasional quiz or homework assignment. I got very discouraged and had countless tear-filled phone calls with my mother about the GPA you have to maintain to keep a scholarship. However, I soon found I didn’t have to do it alone. I could get together with friends in the Williams lobby, and while yes, we often got very distracted, I learned a lot from them: the same peers I tried so hard to keep away from.
 Time management is also a huge aspect of college success so keep a planner and stay organized. I’m not saying you have to keep an anal minute by minute diary, 8:00 wake up, 8:03 brush teeth, etc., etc, but do keep a basic outline of when your classes are, when your practice times are, and when need to work, sleep, eat and study. It really helped me to stay focused and on top of things. I actually kept two planners, one for day to day activities and times, and one for the assignments I planned to get done each day.
   Lastly, have fun. Keeping yourself relatively sane is hard I love what I do. I contemplated changing my major to psychology with a minor in philosophy and dropping music all together. I figured I wasn’t good enough at it to even continue trying. The words of many stuck in my head though. I was told over and over not to give up when I feel as if I’m being pushed to my limit. Music has always been my life, and I knew deep down there was nothing more I’d rather do with it. Yes, psychology and philosophy are truly fascinating but they are not my passion. I encourage those of you in this room that I know are contemplating the same exact thing to not give up. College is supposed to be the greatest time of your life. Otherwise, they wouldn’t make so many movies about it. Yes, stress a little about the things that truly matter, but do not let your mind get the best of you. Try to be too overwhelmed, otherwise you cannot enjoy this time of learning and experiencing new things. The occasional trip to Twisty’s or Starbucks with a few friends, or going to a community event is what makes college so memorable. Spending the small breaks of time with the people who will eventually become like family to you is why they stick with you for the rest of your life. College will ultimately be what you make of it, so make it the best it can be.

All Work and No Play: That Tricky Thing Called Time Management

       When the topic of time management is brought up, I usually tend to curl up in a ball and stress out about the things I still have to do and how there are never enough hours in the day to complete the aforementioned tasks. I am also a perfectionist and therefore I am afraid to do those tasks because I might mess up in my attempts to finish the task on time and complete it wrong or poorly due to the lack of time I seem to have. Fear of failure and fear of not having enough time to complete the projects has become my biggest problem in terms of time management. When I read the blog topic I actually got freaked out because I remembered that was just one more thing I had to do and turned my computer to hulu.com and started watching The Office. This was not a healthy response to work overload. Procrastination is not the best response to a prompt on time management. So I sat and thought for a minute. Rather than just switching majors to avoid stress, which I did think about a few times, I have begun to organize my day by the hour in an adorable day planner. Seeing each hour planned out allows me to manage my time more effectively, and allows me to finally relax. I’m already starting to feel some stress relief. Viewing each hour allowed me to see that I have more time than I realized. Assigning specific times of the day for practicing, homework, and studying not only gives me a basic outline of what needs to be done throughout my day, but also requires me to block off only the necessary times needed to practice and study, no more and no less.
    I am a firm believer in having time to yourself to simply relax: detox, if you will. I believe a person can go into overload and quit functioning properly. Remember that we are not robots. We do not just occasionally make a whirring noise and shut down. Humans need sleep. Because I am practically immune to the effects of caffeine, I am still a monster in the morning if I don’t get the government regulated necessary hours of sleep, so I have a habit of constantly worrying about it. So I have made sure to schedule sleep and relaxation into my hourly schedule. 
     So, obviously, my advice to my fellow Student Success Seminar classmates is to buy a planner. Make it a cute planner with birds or flowers on it so you will remember that it exists and use it religiously.  Try as hard as you can to stick with the schedule you have planned for yourself in order to effectively avoid procrastination and therefore mounds of unneeded stress. And also, sleep. Give yourself time to relax and don’t spend too much time perfecting that blog assignment. Block off set times to focus on certain projects and adhere to that schedule. If you spend to much time perfecting one, you will lose time set aside for the other ten or twenty things music majors have to deal with. The key to success and healthy time management is to strike a balance. Find a schedule of work and play that works for you. It is helping me already. 

College and Mr. Wonka

      I chose to come to college so I could experience the world around me on my own, without the overbearing guidance from my parents. I wanted to learn more about music in a more individual and personalized environment that simply focuses on music, rather than the 1 hour and 40 minute a day chorus class offered in high school. I wanted to explore and develop my talents in a setting that encouraged free and creative thinking, while helping me to find my true voice, not just in singing but in other aspects as well. I knew that a college education, in particular, a liberal arts education, would allow me to create my own major, and thus my own future. I will be able to explore not just one field, but several. I knew that I wanted to venture off the beaten path and discover things I might have never dreamed. 
     Converse offered me the individual and personalized setting I was looking for. I took voice lessons from Dr. Cathy Siarris at the Alia Lawson Academy starting at the age of eight. I grew up on this campus. It already felt like home to me. I already knew most of the music faculty and I was familiar with the campus. Every other school I visited was just that, a visit. I never truly felt at home until I decided to attend this school. I knew I did not want to be a number and that I needed a familiar and welcoming face that would work with on a individual and personal level. I knew that anywhere else, I would be lost in the crowd and would never be able to keep my head above the chocolate and would be sucked up into the pipe of failure. 
      As mentioned before, I grew up in music and the arts. My mother is a painter and drawer and often took me with her to paint murals. I was in dance lessons at the age of three. I was in voice at the age of ten and in piano at the age of twelve. Music and the arts have always been a primary element in my life. It was my outlet, it was my talent, it was my passion. It did not take me long at all to realize that I was meant to devote my life to music. I was involved in the Teacher Cadet program at my high school. I studied and practiced under my chorus teacher, Rusty Keesler. I chose to study Music Education because I was able to student conduct during this class. I then figured out that I was intended to teach. I knew I wanted to be a part of encouraging music as the same creative outlet that I was provided with. I chose to study music in college to enhance my talent and to learn to be the best teacher I could possibly be. 
      In the words of Mr. Wonka, “we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams.” A music degree is a degree that evolves with “pure imagination”. Any artistic degree is one based on creative exploration. I am now encouraged to approach collegiate life with an open and creative mind. College is a time to explore artistic talent and personal views, and to learn to solve life’s various problems in creative, and often unconventional ways. Mr. Wonka is correct- if we want to change the world, “there’s nothing to it”. College students are the future. We are the ones studying to be the next professors of the college in which we study. We are the future musicians, politicians, or bioengineers. Whether we like it or not, we will change the world. I will, in some way or another, change the world. Whether it be with my musical talent, my open mind, or a new skill I will develop in this new college experience. Either way, Mr. Wonka had it all right, I must appreciate this college education for all that it is worth because it allows me to “simply look around and view [paradise]”; my own paradise that is.