Closer to the Edge: Finals and Highlights

This is it. We're almost done.

This time next week, I'll be finishing all my packing, organizing and deciding what possessions to take home with me. I'll be going through room inspection, spending time with my best friend who will soon be three time zones away, and saying goodbye to the crazies I've come to love.

A week from tomorrow, I'm going home.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this. Sure, it's been way too long since I've seen the ocean, and I'm thrilled to be coming home to both professional and social opportunities, but what about this life I've created here? Do I just push pause for three months and come back like nothing's changed?

That's silly. This is real life. Nobody can do that.

Still, I'm really going to miss my friends here at ASU. They're dependable, honest, really fun to be around and a lot like me - most of us are music majors, so we've shared a lot of the same trials and tribulations over the past nine months. Some of them I've only known for a semester, but they've already become extremely important to me. Others I've known most of the year and have become my rock. There have been smiles and tears, laughter and heartbreak, and my phone's autocorrect now speaks fluent Italian. We've created some amazing memories, and I already know/hope I'm going to be keeping up with some of these people for the rest of my life.

So we'll Skype and FaceTime and call and text, and come August we'll all return to the fiery furnace that is the land of the Sun Devil. Will we be different people then? Most definitely. Summer is a volatile time, and I'm sure the gossip mill will once again go crazy next fall - we'll all have stories to tell, and this time we'll have old friends to tell them to.

Anyway. I'll get all nostalgic and emotional later. Now, on to a very important list: (More) Things I Learned My Freshman Year. [For Part 1 of the list, see this post.]

1. To ensure the music majors get exercise, have the elevator in the music building break - for three weeks. Add extra travel time into your schedule so you can actually climb the five flights of stairs and still be on time to 8am theory.
2. Don't expect anyone to text you back, especially if it's important.
3. Dining hall food gets really repetitive (except gelato).
4. Sometimes you're going to eat by yourself. Rumor has it that's okay.
5. Having a baby grand piano in the dining hall does NOT mean it will be played well. If anything, it is a guarantee that multiple people will play it badly. (It is also less likely to be tuned on a regular basis.)
6. Hugs are rare. Cherish all of them.
7. It's good to have friends who AREN'T in your major.
8. Sometimes sitting around watching movies until 3am constitutes an exciting Friday night.
9. You'll start to realize that you now have multiple friends with spouses and/or kids.
10. Most of the friends in #9 will be more than a couple years older than you. Be glad.
11. Late-night food runs are the best thing ever.
12. Naps are also the best thing ever. (Though they can and will mess up your sleep schedule.)
13. Despite having technology that allows you to communicate almost instantly, if your best friends are in different time zones, you may discover the true joys of snail mail.
14. You will never be able to not check your email again.
15. Time management will always be really important.
16. Setting your own bedtime is great if you know you'll get enough sleep to be functional. If you know you won't, you have only yourself to blame.
17. Sometimes your friends will need things at inconvenient times. (Sometimes = almost always.) It's important that you at least try to come through for them anyway.
18. Girl talk and frozen yogurt go hand in hand.
19. You can wear pretty much whatever you want to class. Pajamas? Sure. Concert dress? You'll only get a few strange looks.
20. If you're a girl, you'll develop your own system for dealing with that special breed of college boy that enjoys whistling at, catcalling, and otherwise attempting to objectify you.
21. If you're a boy, you'll start hearing about this more and more from your female friends.
22. You'll be really glad you got good at BS-ing in high school. Because sometimes you will remember that assignment for your gen-ed class fifteen minutes before it's due.
23. After completing Human Event, you'll wonder what you're going to do with all your extra time. (Oh, wait, you still have a thesis. Never mind.)
24. If you're a musician, people will consistently think you're insane. They're frequently right.
25. Post-performance high fives and hugs are among the greater things in life.
26. You'll find that certain people require you develop an opinion about everything.
27. Having small classes is great because your professor almost definitely knows your name and quite possibly has some time to help you if you need it. It's nerve-wracking because nothing goes unnoticed.
28. Composition majors make friends with performers by helping them with the theory homework.
29. Put your name on everything you submit - including digital files.
30. Sometimes the best part of your day involves Chipotle for lunch and raucous mealtime conversation with your fellow brass players. Enjoy it.

As usual, I've probably forgotten quite a bit, but hey, it's summer. One final shout-out, though: last night at the ASU Composition Studio Recital, a brass quintet of good friends of mine premiered my newest piece, Supernova. They did a fantastic job and I'm so lucky to have musicians like them to work with. Can't wait to see what next year brings!
Good luck on your finals, everybody. We're almost done!
Love you all,
Megan

I'm Just Sayin': Music Major Problems

Well, folks, we're in it for the long haul now.

The school year is quickly coming to an end, and in just a few short weeks I'll be saying goodbye to these places and people I've come to love. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to come back in the fall (and go home for the summer), but really, three months is a long time to be without your co-conspirators! That said, we aren't out of the woods yet. Finals are looming over our heads, projects need to get done, and I've got more mandatory concerts in the next two and a half weeks than I can physically attend. Not to mention all the little annoyances that come up during normal school...

...which is the point of this post. I'm compiling a list of the little things that are either funny or irritating, all of which fall under the category of #MusicMajorProblems. A lot of them are composer-specific, but some of them apply to almost all of us. (This post is mostly for fun, if you haven't figured that out already.)

Music Major Problems

1. When you tell a performance major friend that you're going to a concert and s/he automatically assumes you are performing. Nope, that's actually probably NOT what I'm doing. (Composer)
2. When you tell someone you want to be the next John Williams and they insist that only being the next Zimmer is acceptable. [This happened to me the other day. Even though I knew they meant it as a joke, it was really annoying.] (Composer)
3. When you're explaining your hopes and dreams to someone and telling them about what you're studying, and they ask, "So what's your actual major?" (Music major)
4. When you don't have time to practice ensemble placement parts so you can move up... because you're too busy composing. (Composer)
5. When you get to meet a composer and constantly have to worry about how you phrase your questions and comments. (Composer)
6. When your friends all get to go meet a world-famous composer... but you can't, because you have rehearsal. (Music major)
7. When you're less than fifteen minutes early to just about anything. (Music major)
8. Having to be both awake and functional for that 8AM theory class. (Music major)
9. Useful people keep graduating. And moving. (Music major)
10. You really only want to write music for your instrument family (and various other special people). (Composer)
11. Not getting to play in front of people. Pretty much at all. (Composer)
12. When someone asks what you play. Which instrument are you talking about? (Music major)
13. There's no easy way to combine classical and jazz music programs in your schedule. (Music major)
14. A lot of us want to do extracurricular a cappella... but we're so busy studying music we don't have time for any more ensembles. (Music major)
15. Too many one-credit classes. (Music major)
16. Do we really have to take general ed classes? [When will math ever help us again? Don't answer that.] (Music major)
17. Realizing you're going to have to charge people for your music eventually. (Composer)
18. Writing enough music to actually fill your senior recital. (Composer)
19. Not enough people writing for brass instruments. (Composer)
20. Boring your non-music-major friends to death with talk about Copland and Schoenberg and functional harmony. (Music major/mostly composer)

Anyway, that's my little rant for today. Hope everyone else is less stressed than I am! Hang in there, guys!
Love you all,
Megan