Invent and describe a new tradition or revamp an old one for Converse College or any of her many parts (Petrie School, Athletics, First-year class, etc.)

I think that it would be neat if at the end of every school year, all of the music students went around to all of their teachers' doors (not just private teachers, but also academic teachers from the music building) and put a posted note on their door commenting on something that they appreciate about that teacher or some joke or something that the two share in common. I feel like a lot of the teachers are either underappreciated or not shown how appreciated they are. The teachers give to the students all year by teaching us and helping us with everything, and they don't usually recieve that much back. I know that it would make me happy if I went to work and found dozens of posted notes with complements and little notes on my door. Also, they could place a vase outside each teacher's door, and if everybody brought one flower per teacher (which wouldn't be that expensive) and put it in the vase, then by the end, there would be a whole vase full of flowers, and the proffessor would know that for each flower that they got, a student was thinking about them.

I can not specifically think of one individual person that I have learned something from off the top of my head, but I have had a bit of experience of meeting different people. I've been to many music camps over the summers and there are always people from all over the place. This past summer I went to California Summer Music, and there were people from all over the country and even some from different countries. There were people from New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, North Carolina, California, Hawaii, Ohio, Texas, and even more places including Japan, Turkey, and China. There usually is a larger asain population at these camps and it is always fun to here someone talking Korean or Japanese to their parents on the phone. I have noticed differences from all of these people. Alot of people laugh the first few times I say ya'll. But then again I thought it was funny when the people from California used "Hella awesome" to describe something. Also, my roomate was from Hawaii and instead of asking a question like " Those are your socks, right?" she would say, "Those are your socks, ya?" By the end of camp, I had northerners saying ya'll and I was saying "ya" at the end of my questions. It is pretty funny how that happens. Also, just the way people think, like their attitudes towards certain things, whether it be political or emotional things, is very different. But I guess one of the things that I have learned not to do is to stereotype. When my roomate said she was from Hawaii, everybody started asking questions like if she danced and wore the grass skirts and coconut bra on the beach and if she surfed. Of course some of these were stupid questions. It is fun to learn about different cultures though. My roomate was so excited when she saw a pinecone, because she had never seen one, and I thought it was really neat that she made daytrips to hike to a volcano. It's just really surprising of what people havn't seen because of where they live, and it makes me wonder what I havn't seen. But through all of our differences, everybody is really similar at music camps because we all have one thing in common....we all love classical music which can be understood by any culture.

This made me laugh a lot, so I thought I would put it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBqY6cJD3CE

"You do not have to be an alcoholic to experience problems with alcohol."

You do not have to be the one drinking the alcohol to find yourself dealing with a problem having to do with alcohol. It could be your friend who has suddenly experienced what it feels like to be free, now that they are in college, and has decided to go crazy with it. ( I have seen this before.) I'm sure a lot of you have seen this before. Trying to find a way to help them is not easy, especially if you are not close (traveling-wise) to them. It can be hard to try to convince them that if they get caught drinking under age, then that would be a bad blip on their record and it might cause them to not be hired at certain places that they might want to work at in the future. I know a lot of kids/teenagers (and some older people) have a really hard time thinking about the consequences of an action before thinking about how much fun it would be to do this action. It could also be a family member that is an alcoholic and therefore effects the family. I have seen how it can effect a person when their parent is an alcoholic. It causes a huge trust issue between the parent and the child and it causes a lack of self-confidence in the child. It is hard to figure out what to say to a person who has had an alcoholic parent, so figuring out a way to help them and guide them into a better life-style while at college is a difficult thing to be able to do.

How can you stay healthy while at college?

I think the obvious answers to this are to eat healthily and to get plenty of sleep so that your immune system stays boosted. Another thing that is always stressed is to wash your hands a lot, which I know a lot of people do, but I still see quite a few people leaving the bathrooms without washing their hands. I think that it is a good idea to take vitamins, because personally I find it hard to try to get all of my vitamins and minerals in by eating all of the foods necessary. I'm not saying that vitamins should substitute for the good foods, but I think they should be taken along with eating healthily. Another thing that is good to do is to hydrate a lot. Drinking a lot of fluids helps to cleanse your body. In other words, don't eat candy corn and drink sprite when you are typing up your blog post like I am...

What did you learn from the Wikipedia entries that might seem interesting or relevant to your current situation? How might you marry the concepts of a liberal arts education with your professional pursuits? What could a professional musician possibly get out of taking a class on, say, Botany? Or the French Revolution? Or Ancient Greek Philosophy? Or any of the other Liberal Arts Courses that we offer here? (You might want to peruse the current Converse Academic Catalogue for ideas. You can link to it from the Converse homepage.) And, finally, did you take anything away from Convocation today that might resound off of these themes?

A liberal arts college is usually a small college with a lot more interaction between professors and students. I'm not really sure how a liberal arts education will fit in with playing in an orchestra, but I'm sure it would help some if I teach students privately. Being able to help the student interpret what you are trying to teach them might mean that you have to explain it in terms that they would understand. Such as if they are very good at science, then it might help you to compare something from science to something with music. Also having more interaction with faculty members might make it easier to talk to your students and pass down information that you learned from those faculty members. Taking a foreign language might help if say you took German and you are playing a piece by Mahler. It is a lot easier to be able to understand all of the different phrases like "With slow bow" without having to go look them all up online and write them in your music, especially when the symphony is anywhere from 40-60 minutes (believe me, this can be a very long process). It would save a lot of time in that respect. Also musicians tend to travel so that would help if you knew some foreign languages. It would also help to know some history about different countries because then you would know things like when Shostakovich was around, he had a very hard time composing in Russia because the government controlled what he could and could not compose, so then you can understand the pieces by that composer more easily.
I did not really notice anything in particular about Convocation, but wherever I go, like Convocation, or just walking down the halls, it is always really neat to see students interacting with the faculty. Whether it be making jokes, or asking serious questions, it's really good to know that you can approach any of the faculty and feel comfortable asking them questions or just talking to them about any problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wynScdeRaA

Four Questions

"Here's our first Blog topic, i.e Blog Topic #1: Please tell us all three things: 1.) Why did you decide to go to college? 2.) Why did you decide to come specifically to Converse? and 3.) What could possibly be possessing you to make you decide to study music? Oh, and let's throw in a fourth question, just for kicks: 4.) If you woke up tomorrow and couldn't do any kind of music anymore, what would you do instead? All due on your respective blogs by 11:00 pm this coming Friday, September 4. "

1) I decided to go to college because neither of my parents went to college and I saw the effect that it had on them. My mom, even though she could, is not able to get a job that she would really enjoy, partly because of her lupus, but also because she doesn't have a degree in that area. I also decided to go to college so that I could get better at playing my cello. I want to be in a really good orchestra someday and maybe do some solo performing and in order to do that I have a ways to go.

2)My orchestra teacher went to Converse and told me about it and how much she learned and how many performance opportunities that she had while going here. So I decided to come visit and I liked it and everybody was really nice. I also really liked Mr. Law. I had to decide between here and another college and in the end I picked Converse because I thought it was a really good fit over all.

3)Prokofiev, Mahler, Shostakovich, Brahms, Dvorak, Rachmaninoff, Holst, Beethoven, Mozart, Elgar...they possess me!! I love classical music!!! It's a really great feeling when you play a piece of music in a big orchestra and get a huge sound or if you are in a quartet and you can really tune the piece and work in a small group or if you start conquering a concerto or major piece.

4)First I would cry... a lot. Then I would start banging my head against the wall and as a result have some sporadic twitching or something like that. This would eventually effect the portion of my brain that caused my moods and I would go running around like a crazy lady. My parents would take me to a psychiatrist, but he wouldn't be able to fix me and then I would be put in a psych ward. So i guess if I couldn't spend my life playing my cello, I would spend it in the psych ward. Literally though, if I couldn't play the cello then I would probably be a psychiatrist or counselor which might land me in a psych ward trying to help people.