What It Is

Jacob Sutton
Dr. Mirskin
September 9, 2018

 I have to say, it's been quite the journey, adapting to college.  In a sense, it's like starting a whole new way of life.  The phrase "new year new me" has probably been coined by the vast majority of teenagers on countless instagram posts as they enter a new year of high school.  But that doesn't apply anymore.  It's not just a regular year of different classes, new textbooks, and new teachers.  College is beginning again, both starting over and starting anew.


Don't get me wrong, Ithaca gives its students much more academic, mental, and emotional support than other institutions.  But even so, college is hard.  Really hard.  I thought that having so much free time would make college much less stressful than other schooling experiences that I've had.  But once classes began, I quickly realized that this was in no way the case.  As a music student (and honestly just as a college student in general), the academic demands of both my classes and professors leapt greatly from the workload of high school.  Most days, I spend much of my free time in a dark and windowless practice room, desperately plunking away on the piano for hours, trying desperately to master the instrument for my keyboard class.  And don't even get me started on my music theory class!  I've already had multiple mental breakdowns, two of them concerning my theory homework.  Long story short, college has been a whirlwind of emotions.  But college is all about learning from your mistakes, and while I've definitely had my ups and downs, I have learned from every obstacle I've encountered.

 I have to say, I'm beginning to get the hang of college.  In fact, I'm actually keeping up with my workload (for the most part).  To my surprise, I quickly met people who I truly care about, and people who care about me.  And better yet, just being around musicians all day is both inspiring and motivational and has made me a much better artist, in the span of just two weeks.  I have actually surprised myself with how well I've been adapting.  And I've realized something.  I'm much more capable than I thought I was.  Growing up in a white, middle class family, I was pretty coddled throughout my whole life.  Because of this I thought I just wasn't going to be able to handle doing things on my own.  But you know what, I'm doing just fine.  

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