Well, this is my first post on this blog. I’m not quite sure what is going to go into this blog or how diligent I’ll be about keeping it updated.
I am in my late 20’s, a soprano, and about to start my master’s degree in vocal performance at a nearby state school. (Yes, I’m keeping this ambiguous on purpose.) I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t plan better so I could be going to a better school, but I have started the process so many times and then given up for various reasons that I just wanted to get in somewhere and get started. I was fairly certain that I’d get into this school, and it didn’t require incurring major travel expenses, so I applied, auditioned, took my GRE (which I did surprisingly well on), battled the inevitable lost paperwork issues, and now I’m all set to begin in August. I’m excited.
I got my BA in music ed a few years ago. By my last year I knew I wanted to go the performance route, but I knew I had some deficiencies, and I hadn’t planned well, so I planned to take a year off of school to take some language courses at the local junior college, get more lessons, give another recital, etc. Well, at the end of the summer, literally like two weeks before the semester started (I’d actually already started my language courses at the jc), I decided to ditch that for a teaching credential. I listened to my mom too much. She wanted me to be practical. And while I admit, at face value it sounds more practical to get a credential and teach in a high school, but if it’s not in your heart, it’s not very practical.
So I dropped my classes at the jc and enrolled at a university to get my credential. It started out really good. I enjoyed my classes, for the most part, although some of them really didn’t apply to teaching music. I even enjoyed student teaching for the first few weeks. Then I had a week from hell. I don’t remember what happened. I just remember how depressed and drained it made me, and I never recovered from that. I seriously considered dropping out. I didn’t, though, and I was miserable for the rest of the semester.
After I finished with that I moved back home with my parents. Yay me… 25 and living at home with mom and step-dad. (I’m actually doing that again for a few months while I wait to move for school.) I tried being a secretary for a while, but I was so bored, I just couldn’t handle it! I ended up subbing. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I hate subbing.
I finally got fed up with the holding pattern my life seemed to be in, so I decided to go for grad school. Instead of looking around for a really great school, I settled on the closest one and applied there. It’ll be ok. There are actually a lot of oportunites for me. I’m excited to get started.
Anyhow… I’ve gotta go get ready to give my grandpa a ride to the store. I’ll post more later.
~wannabe
