"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...
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
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.
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.
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