So, first day of orientation and placement exams at UNT, and I suppose it all went all right, with a few exceptions, not least of which was when I accidentally exposed myself to an entire recital hall of MM and DMA (Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts) candidates and possibly half of campus. But I'll get to that in a bit.
First of all, I got to campus, found a parking spot on the street, and made it to the music hall on time, which was a pleasant surprise for me. The first three hours of the day were a series of informational meetings, starting out broadly and getting more and more specific. A series of faculty spoke and answered questions, and we got a lot of handouts and stuff that are actually helpful, which is kind of a first, so that was nice. It was a bit disconcerting, however, that the first speaker of the day was a guy from counseling services, telling us how hard it is to cope with the stresses and rigors of graduate coursework and how it will apparently wreak havoc on us mentally, physically, and basically that we will never, as artists, be able to maintain healthy relationships (but I already knew that). At least he was upbeat about it. The rest of the profs and stuff just gave us info on the school, our placement tests, registering, courses, blah blah blah. The head of the vocal department, Dr. Jeffrey Snider, reminds me a lot of Dr. Meyer, which is a little scary, but I will try to give him the benefit of the doubt until I get to know him better.
I didn't seem to be the dumbest, most unprepared person there, either, which was nice. It's always the hope that there are at least two or three people who are a little more lost than you are, and that seemed to be the case today. The only test we took was the music history exam, and it turned out to be just a scantron with 150 multi choice questions, which was basically a dream come true. I did guess on a quite a few, but they were all educated guesses, and the answers I knew for darn sure far outweighed the ones I did not. I'm glad I didn't study a whole lot more than I did. The theory tests are tomorrow (written theory, ear training, sightsinging, and keyboarding) and I am seriously contemplating waiving the keyboarding test and just taking the one credit class. I have to decide by tomorrow, but it's feeling like a pretty good option since I'll probably have to take the class anyway. Why put myself through the humiliation of doing atrociously on the test?
There are a ton of grad and doctoral students in the music department, but in the voice department specifically I think there are around 7 masters students and 4 doctoral students...something like that at least. I keep being assured that this is one of the top music schools in the country, but when the program is so small and selective and I got in, it makes me seriously question that. Maybe all of the big time divas are too good for Denton, TX. I dunno. But besides my inclusion in the program, there is a lot of evidence that UNT is a serious music school. The faculty is prestigious across the board, (I'll see how they teach soon enough), the facilities are huge and well-maintained, there seems to be a lot of support from the university as a whole for the College of Music, and last but not least, the music library is amazing. I'd read that it was the biggest collegiate music library in the country, but when i actually went and checked it out, I almost crapped my pants. I thought WWU's library was pretty good...this is about 10 times the size. I can't wait to do some research papers!! (You think I'm joking...sadly, I'm not). And everywhere I walked on campus, people were TALKING about the College of Music. It was so weird. Even the people who aren't music students are involved in ensembles and productions and actually seem to care about them, which is pretty cool. I walked by the music annex today and I heard the drumline practicing and it was...indescribable. There's really nothing like a drumline. :-)
Overall, I am excited to be back in school. There have been a few times in the last couple days when I've been driving around and I will look at my surroundings and think "What the hell am I doing here?!" Just walking around campus today, meeting faculty and other students, and getting connected a little bit made me feel the old back-to-school butterflies, compounded because I will be studying solely what I want to be studying, and getting to put what I love into practice. Studying music is its own reward...I really do believe that, and I believe this experience will be worth the time and money and relational havoc (haha) even if I don't end up making music my primary career.
That's the goal though.
All right, so it wasn't ALL great. I had some patented "Jennifer" moments. First of all, there of course had to be a problem with my records, cause I don't think I've ever been able to just register or get financial aid or something without some mistake or oversight on the part of the offices processing my paper work (this trend has been continual since 7th grade when I showed up and had no schedule of classes...things haven't changed). Today, it was a lack of a transcript evaluation that my area coordinator was supposed to complete. So I won't know what deficiency classes I have to take for a few more days, until they finish that and get it to me. That is fairly frustrating since I am supposed to register tonight. Oh well. And in another patented Jen move, I totally forgot where I parked my car today after school. Seriously. It was awful. And it was so damn hot outside, and I'm wearing jeans, walking around with a huge backpack for a half hour, trying to remember what side street I'd parked on. Finally, by the hand of God I found my way. Literally. Haha. It was a familiar looking church that ultimately helped me orient myself. I was so thankful. What can you do in that situation? You can't very well go up to someone and ask for directions on where you parked your own car. All you can do is pray for deliverance from your own lack of direction.
And finally, my embarrassing moment...oh my gosh. It's not uncommon, I'm sure, but still not something you want to happen on a day of many first impressions. Anyway, since I'd parked so far away from the college of Music, I walked really fast this morning. I was wearing a button up blouse and a bag with the strap across my chest. Somehow a button in a really strategic area got undone. I walked into the recital hall amid a couple hundred other students and plopped down in a seat, realized I'd forgotten to pick up a handout, got up, walked out and back in in front of all the students again, sat down, and FINALLY noticed that I was basically baring my chest. How long I'd been walking around showing off the extreme cleav, I have no idea, but I can only hope that people don't remember me for the rest of my time here as the girl who inadvertently gave a free show on the first day of orientation. Ugh.
I think I'm going to go and buy some shorts or something.
yesterday // life goes on
