Hello, world! It's certainly been a while since I last posted. So you might ask what I've been up to since last summer? Well...I didn't slay any dragons or travel to a distant land, but I did do plenty of other semi-noteworthy things. 1) Joined the Furman Symphony Orchestra and also traveled with the Furman Wind Ensemble to Jacksonville to perform a concert for a convention. 2) Learned to play the alto flute--yes, I said alto flute. 3) Became a stagehand at Furman. 4) Attended an infinite number of concerts put on during the Juilliard in Aiken residency. 5) Survived the snow-pocalypse. 6) Took my first English class here at Furman. 7) Oh, and signed a publishing contract for a book deal during my spring break. Nothing really interesting, huh? Perhaps, I should elaborate on the book deal news. About two weeks ago, I signed my publishing contract with PRA Publishing to publish a chapbook of my poetry. In late fall of 2014, A Close Proximity to the Heart will be released. I will be spending a good portion of my summer and winter breaks touring and giving loads of poetry readings. Be on the lookout for more information.
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After an entire month of being buried under mounds of Furman work, I came to the interesting realization that I haven't blogged lately on my personal blogsite. I've been tending to my weekly blog posts for Furman's freshman blogger website, but I realized that I haven't written anything recently on my own blogsite. So here we go! Busy busy busy is the life of a music major. Rehearsal, homework, practice, eat, practice some more, class, practice, sleep, and then repeat! Some days I feel like I'm the White Rabbit from Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland who is constantly saying, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Take for instance my interesting schedule yesterday. It consisted of two hours of class, an hour of studying, FIVE STRAIGHT HOURS WORKING ON SPANISH HOMEWORK, and three hours of practicing. One thing I might add is that I decided to do my practicing at 9 at night and I kept going until midnight. Maybe I did that because I like how the practice rooms are less crowded at night. Maybe I did that because I felt like being a responsible music major and practice a decent amount for the day. Maybe I did that because I had a wild burst of energy last night and decided "Who should want to sleep when you can be on a practicing binge??" Perhaps, I was unaware of the "I feel like I've been hit by a truck and I just want to crawl back into bed" feeling that I would be struck with this morning when my watch alarm went off. Some days, you just have that overwhelming feeling of nfeioioiouugjnfjdklurijbhbf. You know? You're tired because you got maybe five hours of sleep last night...and that's the third time you've done that this week. Laundry needs to be done--IMMEDIATELY. You're lacking an acceptable social life because you're either A) in the practice room B) in your dorm room doing homework or C) in the Dining Hall eating with a book in your lap. You're stressed out because you don't know how you're going to manage your workload and you've got to read a Spanish novel and there's that project in aural that you've put off for so long and how about those 150 page readings you have to do for your First Year Seminar Class and you know you really really really need to practice because duh--you're a music major! Some days you feel like you're going to spontaneously combust and splatter brain goo from one end of the room to the other. Some days, life seems tricky and complicated. Things don't line up and work out as planned and you're frustrated with how things are playing out. At times, it's miserably hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and see how you're going to make it through this crazy mess called "life." There are days that you don't feel like much of anything at all and you just want to give up on everything and have a massive pity party for yourself. It isn't easy, but we can work through it if we try hard enough. When I first came to Furman, I brought a medium sized bulletin board to decorate with anything I so pleased. After much thought, I titled my board "Smultronställe." Smultronställe is a Swedish word that translates to "wild strawberry place," but really, it means so much more than its literal definition. A wild strawberry place is an idyllic place in the world--it's the most special place there is. A smultronställe is any place that's absolutely private and special and your own. It's a place where life is an epiphany to you. I'll leave you, reader, in wonder as to what my smultronställes are, but I can tell you that my board is filled with pictures of my wild strawberry places and whenever I feel down, I can simply return to them in spirit. I encourage for everyone to find their wild strawberry places in the world and hold them dear to their hearts. What place in the world is better than your smultronställe? Almost two weeks on campus!! Waaahhh!!! The first question everyone asks me is "How's Furman?" Are there really any words to describe my college experience? Hmmm...I really can't think of any words at the moment, so what better way to describe my Furman adventure than through pictures! I mean, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here we go! Parents go through several stages before their children leave for college. Stage One- "I can't wait until you get out of the house." Moving out means no more crazy schedules to keep up with, no more arguments over stupid little issues, and no more teenage appetites to attempt to sate. Stage Two- "I must impart my wisdom to you." At the most random times, a parent will start advising you as to how to wisely live your college years. One minute you'll be talking about the nightmarish BC calculus test you just took that day and somehow your mom will manage to connect that thought to importance of always carrying pepper spray with you. Don't ask me how these two thoughts are related. Stage Three- "Lists! Lists! Lists" Some parents take comfort in making lists of anything and everything you'll need/want at college. You'll wake up and you'll find lists scattered all around the house. What a frightening alternate universe you've been dropped off into! Stage Four- "Don't leave!!!" Self explanatory. If you're like me, you care that you have what you NEED for college, but you genuinely care not in the slightest if the color of your bed sheets coordinate with the color of the trash can that'll be next to your desk. Who cares if I buy these bed covers verus those bed covers? I just need something to sleep in and on! In my opinion, deciding dorm accessories seems like such a frivolous concern when I could be perfecting the exposition of Mozart's flute concerto in G major or writing a poem that could change the world. If you have a neurotic parent like mine, that parent has created a bunker stockpiled with everything that you'll need and don't care about for college. In that mountain of supplies, you'll find a random and odd assortment of things you'd never expect to be taking. A sewing kit. A can opener. A tea kettle? Really? Neurotic parents plan early. Several months before move-in day. No joke. What's even more disturbing is that they'll spend entire days just planning for your move-in and then, they'll pester you at the worst times asking you if you'd prefer this kind of iron pictured in the Walmart advertisement than the one she already bought at Target. Beware these neurotic parents at their craziest but do remember to thank them in the future; they're nutty for a good reason. You may not appreciate their neuroticism now, but you'll appreciate it when you're all set up in your color coordinated dorm with all the supplies you could possibly need for your first year of college. What did I learn at Furman's Summer Orientation? 1) As a music major, more than half of my freshman classes will be music classes--not that that's a bad thing at all! It's like a dream come true for me to do music activities all day long! 2) Just because there's so much good food in the DH, don't pig out on everything...or better worded would be "don't eat five cookies, a slice of apple pie, and ice cream and call that your dinner." All the food in the DH is pretty great there, but just remember to eat healthy or else you'll find yourself gaining a good seven pounds in your freshman year. 3) Furman's simply a beautiful campus. Period. 4) There are several study abroad programs there and I seriously hope that I may travel to Italy in my junior year with the music department at Furman. Where's a better place in the world to study music than Italy? 5) Going up the stairs of the bell tower isn't exactly the wisest idea if you're scared of heights like me. 6) Don't get a tray in the DH. Not necessary and you'll definitely look lame carrying one around when everyone else is just carrying back plates of food to their table. 7) When in doubt, ask and talk to the people around you because everyone there whether they're a professor or a senior neuroscience major, everyone's willing to help you out. Oh, and they don't mind answering stupid questions. Good thing to know, right? 8) Leaving home and going to college may not be such a terrifying and upsetting thing afterall. 9) Making friends with other Furman students is pretty simple and easy because everyone up there is incredibly friendly and they just give off good vibes when you're around them. 10) Of course, I can't wait to be there in the fall! Go Paladins! This summer is absolutely flying by at turbo speed for me. Before I know it, I'll be at my new home, Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. As it is, I'm going up to my college (wow, that's so weird to say) on Monday and Tuesday of next week for summer orientation. Woohoo! It seems that I've known for a while that Furman was the right college for me. Exactly one year ago when I came to visit Furman for the first time, I saw the beautiful campus, the excellent academic reputation, and the friendliness of the people there at Furman and fell in love with the school. My mom unfortunately saw the price tag atttached with the school and said, "Wonderful school, but the answer's no." When my mom made up her mind that Furman was too expensive for me, I made up my mind that I would find and apply for any scholarship that would help me make Furman financially possible for me. I swear I did nothing but fill out two or more scholarship applications per week from mid-November until the very end of May. There are eighteen documents still saved on my computer that possess eighteen different scholarship essays on vastly different topics. In the week of my music scholarship audition for Furman, I must have put in at least 25 hours of practice for that one week. Throughout the year, I spent my life in my guidance counselor's office talking about colleges, applications, and more forms I needed to fill out to make Furman a possibility for me in my future. As it stands, I have a $15,000 music scholarship to Furman University, South Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship, Palmetto Fellows Scholarship, and many more scholarships that have made Furman financially possible for me. So there are three valuable lessons to be learned from my experiences: 1) Don't judge a college by its pricetag. 2) Work your tail off by filling out stacks of applications and scholarship forms because your hard work will pay off in time. 3) Go with your gut feeling about colleges. Believe me, you'll know it if it's the right one. |
AuthorKendall Driscoll is an accomplished writer/ musician/ artist/ academic scholar. Archives
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