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.