Sometimes it’s just so hard to maintain a positive outlook, that I find myself wondering why. I wonder if anyone else stops during the day to ask themselves the question:
am I staying positive?
It’s a question I think we all should ask ourselves more often. I have two exams today, and my alarm didn’t go off (I probably hit snooze too many times) this morning. So the next time I woke up was 30 minutes before my first exam. Skipped breakfast, skipped shower, and basically skipped my whole morning routine, including pull-ups on the Iron Gym, and jumped out of bed, threw clothes on and ran out the door. I made it on time (barely) and sat to take the exam. I didn’t do as well as I had thought I would, although I could have prepared more. I finished the exam, and put my books into my locker. (Yes in University there are lockers…well for the College of Music anyway)
Next on my agenda was having to play some Piano and Trumpet compositions for a Group Piano class. Easy, most non-composers stick to quarter notes, half notes, whole notes. So I grabbed my trumpet, went into a practice room to warm up. Uh…where’s my mouthpiece? Oh, yeah, I left it at home! I was doing mouthpiece buzzing late last night, and guess I never put it back in the case. I’m supposed to play in TEN minutes…what am I going to do? So I think for a second, then opt to check in the instrument storage office to see if I can rent a mouthpiece for an hour…NEVER AGAIN. It’s obvious they don’t sanitize the mouthpieces after being used, and they just stuff them in a drawer full of a bunch of miscellaneous garbage like pens, pencils, cleaner, food wrappers. Whatever, I need it so, I get it. I play the compositions, and they were pretty much what I expected. Some where better than others, but it was clear that no one really spent a lot of time on them (even though it was just to show you knew how to transpose up a whole step).
Ok, I’m done for the day so I decide I want to go home and nap before my next exam, seeing how the morning was so hectic. I get to my car, and sure enough…the rear driver tire is flat. So I take it to Tire Kingdom, where I had my oil changed yesterday. They were supposed to rotate my tires, and it soon became obvious to me that they didn’t. They didn’t even make sure all the tires had equal pressure (do not go to Tire Kingdom on Ocala/Tennessee for any kind of servicing). So I take it to a small mechanic on Tharpe/Mission, he filled my tire up and checked all of them for FREE. Then he noticed that I was missing some screws in a panel underneath my car, and put some in for me for FREE. We talked about how I want to be a music professor. He seemed very educated and knowledgeable. We got into a discussion on the ancient Romans, and how they used to pair Music as part of their mathematics education systems. We talked about the state of the country, and he spoke to me about how freedom is a gift and a curse, especially in the United States. He said something that I wanted to remember, so I took a mental note. “In the U.S. we’re free, and that’s a great privilege. We’re free to succeed at whatever we want to do, and we’re free to fail at whatever we want to do. The only problem is, since everyone’s free, no one cares if you fail, as long as they are still successful.”
Food for thought. I will probably post some type of response to that statement this weekend.
So I wasn’t able to go home and nap. I decided on the next best course of action…to indulge myself in the glory of fast food, in order to quell the intense emotional state I was in after the preceding events. I went to Chic-fil-a (they didn’t invent the chicken sandwich, but they sure did perfect it…for fast food). I ordered a #1, Chicken Sandwich, Waffle Fries and a Drink (opted for Cookies ‘n Cream Milkshake). It was delicious, and I felt myself calm down a little. My day was still a disaster at this point.
So through a lapse of time, we end up here… I have one exam keeping me from Spring Break, and it’s in 60 minutes.
This is where I say I should have a positive outlook, and I do. There are many things to stay positive about, when I look at this day at the macro level. I didn’t have to pay for those repairs on my car (always a plus to get free stuff as a college student), I didn’t get into an accident because my tire was almost falling off, I had a great meal, and I’m going to take an exam on a subject and class that I enjoy very much, Film Scoring.
There are millions of things that could have happened to me today, I’m glad only a couple slipped into my path.
Tonight’s agenda:
-Voice recital
-Working on my Sonata for Trumpet and Piano
-Packing my bags
-Cleaning my room, doing laundry and cleaning the apartment.
Signing off!
-GJDJ
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