\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In which Daniel recalls the last days of sophomore year in a kaleidoscope of moments.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Perhaps the word \u201csnapshot\u201d is an inaccurate description of this blog post, because rather than describe a single moment or emotional state I\u2019ve experienced, I will instead present a series of fractured feelings and actions that I recall.\u00a0 It was, after all, in this way that I closed my second year of college: confused, panicked, and chaotic. It was pretty awesome.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am lying upon the floor in the lobby of Schneebeck Concert Hall, three of my classmates from Music 231: Classical to Romantic Eras sprawled in various places around me.\u00a0 Music history textbooks are strewn across the floor, hindering the progress of young music students as they attempt to get into the music building through the lobby.\u00a0 In preparation for the long night of studying for the incomprehensible monster that is our final, I have brought snacks.\u00a0 Many snacks.\u00a0 But it is not so much the number of snacks that I have brought that impresses my peers, so much as the quantity.\u00a0 It is remarkable what 64 fluid ounces of Boathouse Chai Tea can get you through.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With only minutes to spare, I glare angrily at my very last Music Theory final, wondering how on earth the atonal twelve-tone rows before me are related.\u00a0 Surely they must be, and I am just not seeing the connection?\u00a0 But aha!\u00a0 I see now how the lines are inverses, and with only a minute to spare, I scribble down answers that were most likely (hopefully correct).\u00a0 Inverse of 8!\u00a0 Retrograde Inverse of 10!\u00a0 Retrograde of 3!…?\u00a0 Close enough!\u00a0 And with that, I turn in my last music theory test of college.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Three people remain in the last few minutes of the Music History final: Kelton Mock, Minna Stelzner, and me.\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 I think to myself, I remain writing in my test alongside the two students that are most likely to ACTUALLY know what they\u2019re saying!\u00a0 And this time, I am not the last person writing in my test booklet because I am taking time making up answers, but instead the last person writing because I have so much to say.\u00a0 Who knows their music history?\u00a0 This kid.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHold on, please\u201d, Dr.Padula \u2013 head of the School of Music\u2019s vocal department \u2013 calls as I preemptively attempt to leave the stage of Kilowrth Chapel after only the second song of my jury (the school\u2019s singing final).\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019d like to request a third song\u201d.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 I panic as I smile and step back to into place in front of the piano.\u00a0 \u201cDonizetti\u2019s Me Voglio Fa\u2019na Casa<\/i>, please\u201d.\u00a0 Somehow, I glide through the song in a vague daze of exhaustion and panic, and all is going well until I reach a line that I\u2019ve forgotten.\u00a0 Damn, I think, I was so close, and I rapidly begin synthesizing Italian from the verses I\u2019ve already sung, until my pianist comes to an awkward halt in confusion.\u00a0 There is a slight pause, and I leap right to the closing section of the song, barreling through rather inelegantly until I reach the end.\u00a0 Whoops.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A small group of the brothers of my fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, are throwing a Frisbee on a lawn by a beach at Point Defiance.\u00a0 One of us grills homemade hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken-apple sausages, the scent of it ashy and savory. We talk about nothing in particular as we play, and while I liked them all before anyway, I am certain that I belong there because we are all very bad at Frisbee.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I received an A- on my jury!\u00a0 How did that happen?<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite all the boredom, pain and suffering that Aural Skills has necessitated, I cannot deny the perfect, precise beauty of my completed final as I analyze the final chord of my harmonic dictation and officially complete sophomore year.\u00a0 It was a good thing, really, to have taken this class\u2026 even if it required three separate tests for each unit, and the completion of an ear training computer program named MacGamut that may or may not be evil incarnate.\u00a0 How wonderful that I can hear music and understand its harmonic language; how useful all that piano practice was.\u00a0 But then again, these sorts of things always look better in hindsight.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Worn out from a strenuous evening of packing my room up, but determined to seize one last opportunity for socializing before I leave campus, I prepare to head over to a friend\u2019s house at midnight.\u00a0 \u201cYou better take the dessert food\u201d, my only remaining housemate instructs.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a third of an apple pie and that enormous container of vanilla ice cream\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cDo we have paper plates and utensils?\u201d I ask, and she opens her nearly empty cupboard in the kitchen to pull out a box of paper plates, forks and spoons.\u00a0 \u201cI looked at these about an hour ago and said, \u2018I\u2019m going to need these later for some reason\u2019, and this must be the reason\u201d.\u00a0 With great delicacy, I stack the paper plates and utensils on top of the pie, and fit that pie into the ice cream container \u2013 which is so enormous, the pie fits.\u00a0 \u201cOh my god, that is so perfect,\u201d Rosa exclaims, \u201cI need to instagram this right now\u201d.\u00a0 I grin as we both take a picture of this perfect little moment.\u00a0 College is, in fact, the best.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One blog post remains before I am, at last, finished blogging for this semester, but before I write that final farewell, let me say this: that apple pie was absolutely delicious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In which Daniel recalls the last days of sophomore year in a kaleidoscope of moments. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Perhaps the word \u201csnapshot\u201d is an inaccurate description of this blog post, because rather than … Continue reading