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XIII.1 - Friends and Academia
9 years ago
I've planned a series of four journals to reintroduce myself and help allow you to follow where I've been and who I've become these past few years. Instead of doing everything chronologically all at once, I've broken it up into categories that I think will help me convey my blogging more clearly and concisely.
One of my last journals (An Update, XII) explained that after only one semester of university that I would be leaving the music performance program and listed a series of reasons why. In hindsight, this was largely a poor choice. I still got a lot of legitimate experience and growth through music which I will explain in another journal, but I lost a true sense of accountability and the resource of a private saxophone instructor. In high school and the beginning pf college I never built up any real work ethic or discipline, and by the time I realized this I was already too far in (or out, I guess). I have been reading a lot of past conversations with WildeandProkofiev where he gave a lot of great advice from the perspective of someone who went to an arts school and continued to study clarinet, but at that time I took none of it. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking.
I don't hold a ton of regret, though. College was largely great. I ended up majoring in philosophy which I find fascinating. I have no interest in pursuing a career "in philosophy" or remembering philosophers names or even what they said (mostly), but it was the process in how they observed, argued, and learned that really inspired me to grow intellectually. Also, at UW-Madison the undergraduate philosophy program is laughably lax, so it gave me a lot of room to study a breadth of topics and take advantage of the different departments the UW has, all while having time to continue my music career.
The only I friend from high school that I still talk to on a semi-regular basis is Blitz. I'm hugely thankful for this. I talked a lot on here about my incredibly close connection with TJ, but we seem to have grown apart. I really miss him, but he has a lot going for him and I have a lot going on so I don't want to force anything. Plus, I've become a bit evasive of Christianity where he has dived deeper into it. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
My initial goal was to graduate in May of 2015 (four years), but it didn't go as planned. Although the philosophy department is kind of a joke here in Madison, my work ethic got the best of me, plus some serious mental and physical health problems which I will touch on another day. So now I'm still a student taking my final three credits and aiming to graduate in May of this year.
That's all for today. Tomorrow's post will be much longer, I'm sure. Sorry not sorry. (:
One of my last journals (An Update, XII) explained that after only one semester of university that I would be leaving the music performance program and listed a series of reasons why. In hindsight, this was largely a poor choice. I still got a lot of legitimate experience and growth through music which I will explain in another journal, but I lost a true sense of accountability and the resource of a private saxophone instructor. In high school and the beginning pf college I never built up any real work ethic or discipline, and by the time I realized this I was already too far in (or out, I guess). I have been reading a lot of past conversations with WildeandProkofiev where he gave a lot of great advice from the perspective of someone who went to an arts school and continued to study clarinet, but at that time I took none of it. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking.
I don't hold a ton of regret, though. College was largely great. I ended up majoring in philosophy which I find fascinating. I have no interest in pursuing a career "in philosophy" or remembering philosophers names or even what they said (mostly), but it was the process in how they observed, argued, and learned that really inspired me to grow intellectually. Also, at UW-Madison the undergraduate philosophy program is laughably lax, so it gave me a lot of room to study a breadth of topics and take advantage of the different departments the UW has, all while having time to continue my music career.
The only I friend from high school that I still talk to on a semi-regular basis is Blitz. I'm hugely thankful for this. I talked a lot on here about my incredibly close connection with TJ, but we seem to have grown apart. I really miss him, but he has a lot going for him and I have a lot going on so I don't want to force anything. Plus, I've become a bit evasive of Christianity where he has dived deeper into it. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
My initial goal was to graduate in May of 2015 (four years), but it didn't go as planned. Although the philosophy department is kind of a joke here in Madison, my work ethic got the best of me, plus some serious mental and physical health problems which I will touch on another day. So now I'm still a student taking my final three credits and aiming to graduate in May of this year.
That's all for today. Tomorrow's post will be much longer, I'm sure. Sorry not sorry. (:
