The Ugly, the Bad and the GOOD!!

The Ugly

• Saturday, March 31st, was supposed to be the night of my Senior Recital. This recital is the culmination of all my years studying music. I had a real nice program ready. I even flew my brother in from Texas. But about a week before I developed a horrible cough that caused my vocal folds to become swollen. All weekend I was hacking and coughing and being miserable. And when school started that week I even went on 'vocal rest' which meant that I wasn't supposed to talk - wasn't even supposed to phonate (which would include laughing, whispering). And I stayed pretty good too. I also took loads of herbal cough syrup and expectorant, in addition to drinking gallons of tea. All in the hopes that, on Friday 3/30, I'll be able to impress my voice teacher enough that the concert would still go on. But alas, as soon as I finished my French aria, he shook his head and said, "I still hear a lot of swelling. I strongly recommend that you postpone your recital." Despite my protests I had to admit it was for the better. So I went home, sent out tons of emails and made lots of calls, and just basically hung out with my family. Now I need to reschedule but now it looks like I won't have a chance to do it on campus.

The Bad

• In addition to finding out that I had to postpone the recital, I also received a letter via snail mail that informed me of my rejection from Boston University's School of Music. What sucked was that I thought that Boston was my second best audition that I did. So then the whole weekend I started having doubts about my ability and talent and started entertaining thoughts such as a Plan B in case I don't get in anywhere. Since I didn't get into Boston with a pretty good audition, then it didn't look good for schools such as Peabody and U of Michigan. So for four days I thought about the rejection...

The GOOD!

• Already reeling from one rejection, I called my dad today to see if the letter from Peabody came. As he looked through the mail he said, "No, but here's one from Chicago College of Performing Arts." I quickly asked him to open it. Over the phone I heard a lot of paper shuffling and he was taking a lot of time. So much time that I thought he was trying to figure out a way to break the 'bad' news to me. Then he said, "Blah blah blah, Congratulations..." For a second I couldn't believe my ears. The Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) of Roosevelt University had accepted me. Not only that, but they awarded me $14,000 annually in scholarship money (tuition is about $22,000) a year. So I would need to cover about $8,000 a year, which is way better than trying to cover $22,000 a year.

I still have two more schools to hear from, but even if I don't get in to those, I at least have one option for sure!

Makin Mine Music

~No Tations~