Hello everyone! Yesterday was a packed day, and here I will describe everything I did. Let's discuss the day!

Day 13

Success in voice, but failure in football

Waking up and eating breakfast

Yesterday I woke up around 8am. As you know from the last article, I was up really late thanks to my idiot self not pushing start on the dryer. When I got up, I had a really bad stomach ache which seemed to continue (though not as strongly) throughout the morning.

I went to get breakfast. On the way, I stopped by the printer, and printed out a new composition to show my voice teacher (who I was meeting for the first time). For breakfast, I got cereal with a biscuit and sausage. During breakfast, I once again played balloon tower defense 6. One of these days, I'll bring my headphones and watch a video during breakfast instead. I lost on round 75/80, and was really mad about that. I have been getting closer and closer to beating the level, but always lose around that round.

My first voice lesson

At 9:15am, I left for my first voice lesson. I got there at 9:30am, but was slightly late looking for the office, but when I got there he told me my lesson actually starts at 9:45am. I was really confused, because I thought the email he sent said 9:30am (I just checked, and it did say that). So we started 15 minutes early.

My lesson went well. He basically told me what his goals are for me this semester, and actually said he feels like he has a higher responsibility towards me than towards the vocal majors because what he needs to do with me is expose me to as much vocal music as possible in order to ensure that that aspect of music is adequately represented in my life. He was delighted to learn that I really like Schubert songs, and have studied voice before.

During the lesson, I sang Frühlingstraum, and he gave me things to fix. One of his compliments towards me was that I'm able to change things when he tells me, and leave them changed. He said that's really good, and probably because I'm a pianist first, and I'm used to having to change the way things are done. He said sometimes voice majors are really set in the way they do things, and really have to work to change it.

He gave me a new Ralph Vaughn Williams song to learn this week, and I think the accompaniment is easy enough that I could learn to play it and sing it. Here's the song:

Form and Analysis

After my voice lesson, I found myself speed walking to my form and analysis class. We talked some more about the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata, and also began analyzing the scherzo from Beethoven's third piano sonata in C Major. It is quite a cool movement so I will link to it here. It is really a cool movement (and a cool sonata). If you've never listened to Beethoven's sonatas, I would recommend setting some time aside each day, and just going through them all. During covid, I listened to a playlist of them pretty frequently.

Choir Rehearsal

Immediately after that class, I had choir class. The class went very well. We are working on a piece by Dan Forrest called Good Night Dear Heart, and I learned the story of why it was made. Forrest's brother and his brother's wife were planning to adopt a child from Ethiopia, but unfortunately, before they could get all of the legal stuff in order, the child wound up in the hospital, and passed away. Forrest was moved to write a piece of music, and found himself searching the internet for a text to set only to find a text that he knew very well because it was from his hometown. In his hometown is the cemetery where Mark Twain buried his daughter. On her tomb stone, Twain had a poem that he wrote carved called Good Night Dear Heart. That is the same text that Forrest set (within a day) for his piece. We spent almost all of rehearsal working on this piece.

A quick lunch, and DSA

After choir class, I went to get lunch with a few of my friends. I tried sushi for the first time because I am so sick of the three other foods I have been ordering. Surprisingly, I liked Sushi. I ordered California Rolls. I think I will order sushi again soon.

After lunch, I quickly went to my data structures and algorithms class. We had our first quiz yesterday, and I only got one question wrong. We began learning about the stack, and the ADT layers: application, abstract, and implementation. We also had to design some Java classes for our lab to calculate different attributes of different shapes. Unfortunately, I haven't finished it yet, and have to work on it over the weekend when I have @remlaps nearby for assistance. My teacher also noticed my sheet music, and asked if I'm a musician, and what instrument I play. He then said he wishes he could play music, but he only listens to it.

The funny thing about our lab, is he configured our group's computer to go up on the board last class because he wanted to show our answer to the class. This time, I had to plug in my computer, but the board was still configured that way. So everyone saw my group's work, and also saw my computer's time which is California time. You may wonder why. Because for whatever reason, that's the time that wound up being selected when I set up the computer, and I just add 3 hours to whatever the time is instead of changing it. I think I drive people crazy in my car because I don't change the clock, and instead just do the math in my head for daylight savings time based on what time of year it is.

Writing music

After my class, I went to write music. I had a huge hour of inspiration yesterday, and wound up writing a lot. The project I am working on has changed a bit, but I think I like the way it is going. Perhaps it will be on Steem soon enough, but I have to finish it first.

Getting Dinner and Going to a Club

I then went to get dinner, and ate by myself. I had fried pork and French fries. At first I thought it would taste like Schnitzel (it didn't).

After dinner, I went to a club meeting. I met a lot of people there with similar beliefs to me, and had a lot of fun. I look forward to going to more meetings!

Doing homework and watching a soccer game

After that, I went back to my dorm, and worked on my homework. Around 8:45pm, I went to the soccer field where my flag football team was planning to practice at 9:30pm. I wanted to see some of the game. I learned that soccer is actually very entertaining to watch when the players are really good. I had not realized how good Rider's soccer team is, but I saw probably 4 plays that I would not have thought possible in the 30 minutes of the game I watched. There was a group of little kids who were all wearing matching soccer uniforms, and would run down in front of the stands to encourage the crowd to cheer every time something cool happened. They were adorable, and I could hear them talking about their hopes to one day be as good as the Rider soccer players. They also had an obsession with one player (whose jersey number is 9) who they nicknamed "speed" because of how fast he runs. Every time he got the ball, the kids would start cheering "SPEED! SPEED! SPEED!" My hope is that perhaps the choir college will similarly inspire young musicians through its concerts and events.

Failure in football

My team got there to practice around 9:30pm. Unfortunately, the practice did not go as well as I had hoped. When I got there, the other player on the team who is around my level joked that we are both inept. During the practice, we played 3 on 3, and he was my responsibility for covering, and vice versa. Throughout the games, I humiliated myself again and again, and eventually found myself being mocked by some other players. I probably caught the ball twice in the whole night, tripped and fell a bunch of times, and let passes through a lot. I tried to ask for guidance from another player, but the other team used that moment to snap the ball and score since I wasn't covering my guy. I was called big and clumsy, and felt myself receiving constant criticism for my underperformance, and my counterpart received constant praise for his overperformance. I felt really ashamed, and don't really know if my team did a really good job of motivating me to do better. To be fair though, I'm sure if I asked any of the players on my team to play a challenging piece on the piano, they would struggle as much as I did playing flag football. They would probably work to get better as I will with flag football.

After the game, I found myself wandering away not talking to anyone, and at first felt ashamed with myself. But then I considered it, and realized I should really count my blessings. So much is going well for me this year, and just because my first flag football practice was really awful, should not ruin my mindset. I'm working more than ever before, and while I see a bunch of people around slipping into the cracks of drugs and alcohol, or slacking off in school, I have kept my head down, and have been working hard in the places I excel. I have written several new compositions, have been so graciously accepted into one of the most prestigious choirs on campus, I have been working out nearly every day, I have been finding time to spend practicing, and I am finally learning the ropes of programming with the Steem blockchain. In addition, I am so fortunate to have so many people who love me back home and here on Steem reading my daily updates, and expressing interest in my day to day life (thank you all for that)!

I'll keep trying flag football, and keep working towards my goals. If I humiliate myself along the way, who cares? It will only be permanently logged here on the Steem blockchain for everyone in my life to possibly read at one point or another.

Writing the article and going to bed

At 11:30pm, I took a shower, and then wrote Tuesday's article. I didn't wind up going to bed until 1am which was a mistake, but at least I'd already showered. The girls in the room next door were making a lot of noise. So much that I thought about banging on the wall to signify that I was trying to sleep, but I decided I'll just bring my speaker next week, and if they do it again, I'll start blaring the Bach mass in b minor.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this article! I really appreciate all of the feedback and encouragement, and I do enjoy writing these articles (though I do plan to post some music soon enough). Have a nice day!