Grad School is a little bit like Grade School
I have been a grad student for about a week now. I've also had internet access on a regular basis for a few days and I am liking it a lot. I still haven't gotten the hang of the fact that real things actually happen over e-mail and I need to check it often.
SO far, grad school is a little bit like college and a LOT like elementary school. It's like elementary school in that I carry my lunch and walk there or get dropped off when I'm desperate and Ben takes me. And I walk home and it's all uphill. And that I play the clarinet and carry it to school and it feels heavy. And that I leave a lot of my books in my cubby on campus when I don't have homework. And that I live in a house and not in a dorm. And that I eat a lot of peanut butter.
Classes haven't really taken off yet, so I have very little to report on academically.
I guess the most significant thing to report on for the end of the summer is that I took up clarinet again. So I basically un-quit my instrument. I practiced a bit at the end of the summer, and, somewhat miraculously, auditioned and made it into the lower level wind ensemble for Cornell. So Wind Symphony rehearses this afternoon and I'm pretty excited to be playing in a group again. The assistant conductor is a clarinetist and asked me to take lessons from him. I told him that I'd like to do it next semester. I'm not psychologically ready for that. I'm still trying to get past having let it all go. I'm still trying to convince myself that the all-or-nothing approach to music that I'm used to isn't going to come back and bite me in the ass and someone's not going to say, "Just quit again. there's no point doing this FOR FUN as an ADULT."
Does anyone know who wrote the song "I Don't Know Why?" I've heard several versions of it, but they're pretty much always good. "I don't know why the sky is so blue, and I don't know why I'm so in love with you. / But if there were no music, then I would not get through. / I don't know why I know these things, but I do."
SO far, grad school is a little bit like college and a LOT like elementary school. It's like elementary school in that I carry my lunch and walk there or get dropped off when I'm desperate and Ben takes me. And I walk home and it's all uphill. And that I play the clarinet and carry it to school and it feels heavy. And that I leave a lot of my books in my cubby on campus when I don't have homework. And that I live in a house and not in a dorm. And that I eat a lot of peanut butter.
Classes haven't really taken off yet, so I have very little to report on academically.
I guess the most significant thing to report on for the end of the summer is that I took up clarinet again. So I basically un-quit my instrument. I practiced a bit at the end of the summer, and, somewhat miraculously, auditioned and made it into the lower level wind ensemble for Cornell. So Wind Symphony rehearses this afternoon and I'm pretty excited to be playing in a group again. The assistant conductor is a clarinetist and asked me to take lessons from him. I told him that I'd like to do it next semester. I'm not psychologically ready for that. I'm still trying to get past having let it all go. I'm still trying to convince myself that the all-or-nothing approach to music that I'm used to isn't going to come back and bite me in the ass and someone's not going to say, "Just quit again. there's no point doing this FOR FUN as an ADULT."
Does anyone know who wrote the song "I Don't Know Why?" I've heard several versions of it, but they're pretty much always good. "I don't know why the sky is so blue, and I don't know why I'm so in love with you. / But if there were no music, then I would not get through. / I don't know why I know these things, but I do."