I'm done with classes. My first semester of classes in my DMA. Done. Only 5 more semesters to go and surprisingly that seems like such a short amount of time.
This one semester has been incredible. My perspective on everything has changed. I look at school as this opportunity to better myself in every aspect of my life. I no longer think of it as a routine of classes and assignments to earn the piece of paper that says I can do a job. After working for 5 years I see so clearly how everything I am doing applies to my work in the future. I also am more self aware. Living alone is incredible and gives you a lot of time to figure things out. Living alone and over 600 miles from your family is daunting but also helps you figure things out. Things like, what matters. What really really matters. I live in NC now and I am so ridiculously happy here but going home to Syracuse and seeing the fam is going to be so good. So, so, so, so very good.
Then there are the friends I have been making. It seems like I make new ones every day. That's not all together surprising given that I constantly meet new people, but I am in a graduate program. A program filled with other like-minded individuals with similar goals and talents and outlooks. This makes for plenty of great conversation and therefore plenty of great friendships. I can honestly say I will miss a lot of these people when I'm home for a few weeks. That's so wonderful to say! I am starting to see my life taking shape here in Greensboro. It's not that I am leaving Syracuse behind completely because as a young man I went to high school with used to say, "You can take the girl out of Mattydale, but you can't take the Mattydale out of the girl." I personally find that encouraging. I love being from the 'Dale and it's a great part of who I am. That being said, now I live in Greensboro. The accents and the lingo are more commonplace. I was invited to an open house to basically look at someone's Christmas decorations. I mean, seriously. Invitations and all. But I digress... It's beginning to feel less like I'm here for just school, and a little more like this is where my life is. I will always be excited to go home and see my family, but I also know I will be excited to come back and see my new family here in the G'boro.
So how would I rate my first semester? Apart from incredible? I think it would rate as the most significant few months of my life, to date. Things change, and we all change and grow, and school should always be a part of that growing process. These changes I've made are so right. They're not permanent yet, I have a ways to go before I'm truly happy with my progress but I am on the right track.
I have a friend who is going to be a professional singer. I have many friends that want to be professional singers. This friend, however, has things in order so that a career is going to happen. It's still a few years off because that's how the opera world functions, but to know that with each progressive audition that career is a step closer, is awesome to me. This friend is literally two steps away from a near-guaranteed career. (About as guaranteed as this fickle business can be.) That's exactly where I'm at in doing this DMA. I don't know that I'd say I'm two steps away but I'm certainly only a couple of years. This degree is already preparing me in ways I never dreamed of for my future career. I am going to have a career as a teacher. I know I am. This degree and being here make that notion so clear to me. It's comforting, really, to know so securely that I am doing the right thing. Nights like tonight make that even clearer. I held "mock juries" for my students, like a dress rehearsal for their final performances. My students are all so fun. They're all individuals and they've all improved and they're all excited to do this. I left tonight not feeling drained but feeling invigorated. I can do this for the rest of my life. AND be completely happy doing it. I've felt that way about teaching for awhile, but now I really believe it, and I can see it happening. If I keep learning and growing at this rate, I can only imagine how unstoppable I'll be. However, before I go imagining myself after semester #6, I should likely get to surviving semesters #2-5...
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