reflecting

 
I have to admit that since the semester started, I have been so busy with school and shows and general life, that I have not thought a lot about my personal and professional goals. Writing this reflection has helped me to think once again about why I went on this trip and what I took away from it on a personal level, and also professional. I know that it has changed me and caused me to be more of a professional classmate, colleague, and over all person in general who loves and appreciates every aspect of music, and it has also made me become aware of all other types of art that people bring.

My professional goal was to just discover more about my voice. Even though I know that my voice is not fully developed and wont be for a couple more years, I wanted to know what I could do to prepare myself, and also, what do I want to see myself doing to prepare? This question was answered for me in NYC through my interview, other meetings with people, and just watching many forms of art and coming across different forms of talent that I could use to look up to. One of my favorite things about what I do, as creepy as this sounds, is just watching people do their job. I love being in shows where I have people to look up to, or seeing professionals, because what I am best at is mimicking and taking note of what they do well, and what I like, or maybe what I can do differently. This is really how I accomplished my professional goal in NYC! Taking careful and close, specific notes on what they do that I liked, such as warm-ups, practice schedules, or vocal health tips, even down to what they wear to rehearsal really helped me figure out how I can incorporate that into my own life and use these professionals to help myself. I realized that there is really no difference between me, and those professionals when they were my age. Even though they are probably far more talented than I am, they had to start somewhere just like I am. I figured out that I really need to focus more on my voice and take time to really be concerned about myself and my vocal health. I have tried to get a lot more sleep, and done this by spacing out work throughout the week. Keeping a steady rhythm of practicing, academics, and sleeping has really kept me healthy and happy for the most part. No one is going to tell me what to do once I am out in the real world, so I have been really working on doing things for myself! Learning everything that I can is so important, and not learning it or practicing it because I want to make myself look good, or because a professor told me, but because I truly want to be a great and detailed musician who finds joy in working hard, because then I will be able to incorporate that into my art. I strive to be passionate just like the people we met with in New York, and just like the people we saw professionally, from the little Russian dinner theatre, all the way to the huge stars at the Met. I have been practicing a lot more since the trip, and have spent every free moment I can doing some kind of musical practicing. When I have 15 minutes I will go warm up my voice in the practice rooms, or run through the diction of an aria. I have found this to really help me and makes my lessons more enjoyable because I feel  like I have made some growth in my voice.


My personal goal was to find the "spark" that keeps me going even when the stress of school gets in the way of my musical goals. Looking at the professionals we met with in NYC, you would think that they would get bogged down by the daily stress of life since they are so busy, and also have to practice their craft, and even hold another steady job to bring in income. It is surprising and refreshing to see people who are so in love with what they do, even though the city life can be hard, and commuting, waking up early, and fatigue can really have an effect on ones life. Something I noticed that everyone had in common is this: They all had a smile on their face. More specifically, they all had positive attitudes about life. And over the last couple months I have realized this: How lucky are we that we get to pursue what we love in life? How many people in the world are doing something just because they want to make money? How many people do not  have the luxury of going to college? It is truly a privilege to wake up every day and study something I love, even though during the crunch weeks I feel tired beyond belief. How wonderful will it be to look back on my life and know that I have lived a life that I love and followed my passion? I know that I will not have any regrets, and that is more than enough to ask for. Going to NYC has helped me to realize this, and I am very grateful for that. Having a positive attitude is key, and just going through life with a smile on my face, not forced, but because I truly feel grateful, has been the first step.

Going to NYC has also given me a new cultural outlook. Experiencing great amounts a diversity is something I am sort of used to growing up in Milwaukee, but have not experienced much of it at all in Eau Claire. Sometimes its easy to think that Eau Claire, and specifically Haas, is our own safe little world where we can learn and keep to ourselves, and I really want to change this mind set, and have had it changed by going on this immersion trip. It also has prepared me to go to Jersey City next semester as an exchange student. I know that there will be a lot of new culture there, especially with it being so close to Manhattan, and this experience has already been enriched just by going on the immersion trip. To me, diversity is the coming together of many cultures and ways of thinking. This outlook was enforced on the trip. Sometimes cultures do not get along, as we all learned on the trip, and it was a hard lesson to learn. But it is really not about who you get along with, or what parts of their beliefs you also hold as your own. It is more about the act of realizing other people's ways of thinking and accepting it and learning from them, and learning to live together with those differences. Going to NYC has given me a new outlook and a new way of focusing on the world.