The LaValley’s Blog

Well, I’m a bit late on the afore mentioned update.  But better late than never… in the majority of cases.

So, if you were to come and join me here on my lovely campus, you would find me busily attending my classes (yes, I am still in that horrible habit of showing up early my classes… except I’m super early, since classes start a full ten minutes after the scheduled time.  Apparently I need to work on my learning curve.  On the upside, I meet people whilst I am waiting to be able to get into my classroom.  Which is fun.); doing homework (high school definitely lead me to believe there would be more of it… not that I am complaining); and being social.  Seriously social…. we’re talking a full-on social butterfly metamorphosis here.  Ok, well maybe not that extreme… I’m basically just chatty with good listening skills and some memory recall.  But I’m meeting tons of new people, eating meals with groups of friends, and coaxing a couple to go see Star Trek on the parade ground with me (or a lecture… or whatever else sounds fun).  I got described as a “cool kid” today – which is an impressive turn of events.

And starting tomorrow, you’d find me – at work.  I have a job with the School of Music’s publicity office, which is pretty awesome sounding to me.  I get to learn how to use professional publishing software (and “send stuff to the printers”!  I don’t really know why that’s exciting to me, but it’s just fun to say), potentially help manage the a facebook page for my college, and keep on the up-and-up with all the performance going-ons around campus.

Let’s see…. what else?

Oh! – I promised an update on the bassoon auditions.  Alright, well, I’m gonna cut right to the chase:  they did not end well.  I didn’t make the orchestra for this semester, and despite my swan song performance in my final audition – I am currently the fourth chair in the lowest group.  And for a few days, I was really down on myself for that.  But a few serious pep talks, a playable reed, a little application of logic, and some rudimentary soul searching later, I am making the best of it.

The Pros of my situation:   1. No pressure on the performance level.  This gives me a lot of free time (to be social and studious at the same time).  2.  The free time allows me to pursue other interests.  Point in case?  I joined a double-reed chamber ensemble.  It gives me that challenge I’m craving and gives me a little more diversity in playing to add to my repertoire.   3.  The ensemble I’m in gives me a chance to focus on studying the conductor-ensemble relationship, and take note of what works for this environment and what doesn’t.  4.  Plus, the multitude of audition failure I just got through only pushes me harder to blow them out of the water next time.  Which will help make me a better player anyways.

So, yeah.  That’s the gist of things for now.  College is definitely a new experience, and I’m enjoying it completely.  And the more I see of this little patch Louisiana, the more I am growing to love it, and the more I want to see the rest of the state.  Really – it’s simply beautiful down here.  I’m going to spend part of my holiday weekend just walking around campus with my camera, trying to capture the scenes I like best.  So keep your eye out for them early next week!

I love you all!