On Traditions and Such...
Not going to lie, despite walking over corpses, I'm right glad that the weather from Ida finally let up so that we could take the tour of the campus. Most of the information shared, I already knes, which made me feel special, because Dr. Willis had spoken in the Andrews lobby a few weeks ago.
Now what would I change about Converse traditions? Virtually nothing. The traditions we have are a large part of why I came to Converse. I believe I might have mentioned before that I am a creature of habit, and routine. The shift to having Christmas at my Grandmother's new house (Alia Lawson's House) from our house was a huge controversy to me. If the tradition of our eating hotdogs on Christmas Eve ever passes, my world will end. The idea of jumping in a fountain, having a big sister, wearing a ring, turning it around, getting pushed in a fountain with a new type of ring is all very exciting to me. I want to be part of something like that... now I am.
Creating a new tradition would in fact be inflicting a change... As we just established, I'm not fond of change, but despite this I will press myself to develop one...
Think think think... (Ooh! I felt like Pooh!)
What's something I'd change about Converse? Food... Dorms... Bricks... Valkyries. There.
While I'm not against the new mascot of the valkyries... But I found the All-Stars a bit wittier. What I'm proposing is that we copy the Major League Baseball teams. They all have their throwback games where they wear the old versions of their jerseys. I'm proposing that each sport have one game where we wear jerseys that say All-Stars and are the old style. I don't know, I imagine it'd be kind of classy nostalgia.
Share a Tale of Diversity.
I have yet to leave the country borders. Until two years ago, I had yet to leave the Eastern Time Zone.
The first time I did escape an hour or two from my comfort zone was on the youth choir tour with my church. We don't go to different churches performing, we go in to prisons. These last two years we only went to juvenile detention centers with the exception of one penitentiary.
[This was primarily because three years ago, in Riker's Island, a gang fight broke out during our performance... It was an experience to share another time...]
What's so bizarre about going into juvenile detention centers is that the people we're singing to aren't the hardcore thugs that we see on TV. It's not really that way all the time in penitentiaries either. Whenever we first enter a prison, there's a specific order of entry that's taken, especially at co-ed facilities.
Our guys enter first and set up our risers, band, sound system, everything.
Then our girls enter. The guys stand in front of us or between any windows that lead to where the inmates are held. Then we sit upright, with our knees together, on the risers.
Then the male inmates enter with their guards. Several profane gestures are shrugged off, but anything too out of hand is an automatic removal... Most haven't seen a female in several months or even years, despite being in a co-ed facility, as they're kept separate until we come around.
Then the girls get escorted in. The male inmates have to keep facing forward, and the girls are sat down in the back so that they aren't objectified...
The point of this is that it's all very systematic, and when the inmates are escorted in, they're not quite as hard core as they were outside the pen. Sure, things happen, but when they know the consequences that will come if they try to show out for us, they step down.
In one prison last year, once the males were escorted out at the end, and we were allowed to go talk to the girls for a while. I'm mighty sheltered, but it was bizarre getting to talk to them, learn their names, learn what they did, learn about their families. Two girls were pregnant, several were only in there for running away, some had kids at home with their parents, some had just skipped school too many days.
The most disorienting thing that this experience taught us was how while we see ourselves as all high and mighty for keeping ourselves out of jail by not murdering anyone, something as simple as missing school too many days in Alabama could land you in jail. They're still girls our age, with friends, social lives, who just slipped up one too many times. While sure they might have been raised differently, but they're still girls who enjoy being social, having a family, etc. they're still girls with the same hopes and aspirations as us. They're really not that different...
[Point One.]
I don't really consider what I do to stay healthy, something that I do to stay healthy. It's just my way of not being stupid.
I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't do drugs.
I never have, and don't plan to.
Beyond that I just try not to let things get to me.
I mentioned in my "ME box" presentation how I've lost over nine friends in the last four years and don't cry over it. I don't lie in saying that I've become a rather callous person through this, but I have no real way of coping with it. I think about each of them every day at least once, and scold myself if I fail at naming them off. I refuse to let myself forget any of them. There's periods of time where I get more upset by it, either approaching an anniversary mark of their death or their birthday. I've found that trying to keep my mind busy during these times is best. I was pretty thoroughly depressed the first two years of these back to back events, which in turn made me sick a lot, despite my excessive sleeping habits, and a fairly bitter person. I've learned better now.
Hugs are the best form of stress relief, and I abuse them.
As far as diet health goes, I abuse my metabolism.
I know my metabolism is going to slow down by taking a glance around my family tree. For the next three years or so however, I have reason to believe I'll hang on to it. My favorite foods are between cheeseburgers and subs. Few people on this campus haven't heard about my Dr. Pepper addiction. I do enjoy a good salad though, and I'll drink water if I feel I'm getting dehydrated, but I could afford to do better.
My best exercise method beyond taking the stairs instead of the elevator (if my knee's not flaring up) is fidgeting and laughing... a lot.
Google it. It works.
Watch me during class one day.
I'm fingering through a piece. I'm switching positions in my seat. I'm tapping my foot to a song you can't hear. I'm tapping my pencil. I'm taking my pencil apart. I'm putting it together again. I'm writing. I'm drawing treble clefs.
Granted, it helps that I'm ADD, but it works.
[Link On Laughing]
[Link On Fidgeting]
[Point Two.]
No one in my immediate family drinks.
This is how I was raised.
I heard stories about friends who would get drunk. I heard stories about friends who babysat their drunk parents.
I didn't realize I'd be dating one of these friends for two years. My first boyfriend, Andrew, didn't drink. His dad did. I never saw his father without a beer in hand. There was a night or two where he ended up sleeping on our couch because my family wasn't about to let him close an eye in his own house for fear of his father. His dad never abused him, drunk or sober. But he was sickeningly irresponsible, spending all his money on weekends partying as if he was 21(not 42) instead of providing for his family. He could easily strike fear into the hearts of anyone, young or old.
I have a handful of stories to tell from Andrew's family, to others, but this is not the place for that.
I'm hearing stories of alcohol poisoning, horrible judgment, and veritable plethora of things that easily turn me off to drinking. Others aren't as easily discouraged. There's debates with several of my friends going on right now where I'm trying to keep them from getting into alcohol, or deeper anyway.
They're all out for "the real college experience."
They're thinking "I love College" college experience. I'm thinking, "make the grade, learn, make real friends" college experience. I guess I'm weird.
[Point One.]
Define Liberal Arts.
I was excited to see one of the first things mentioned under the Liberal Arts Colleges heading was the small classes, which is a primary reason I chose Converse.
Beyond that, the Liberal Arts article addressed how there's an emphasis on being well rounded in your education and skills instead of only being specialized in one area.
My orientation leaders did a wonderful job of explaining this when they covered GEP credits. I was vague on the concept of a Liberal Arts College when I came to Converse, and knew only that it would force me to suffer through math and science courses despite my Music Education major.
The Bachelor of Music article stated what we all know we're here for: a degree in music that allows us to pursue a career path and living that involves music.
[Point Two.]
Liberal Arts Incorporated with Music.
Having a liberal arts education prevents you from being limited to one set standard of approach to any given career path.
I'm pursuing a degree in Music Education. Perhaps I'll be able to incorporate math, science, english, physical education, any variety of other specializations into my curriculum. The lesson would still deliver the art and skill of music, but would appeal to people who prefer other areas of study.
[Point Three.]
A Broad Spectrum of Classes.
Richard's a Chemistry Pre-Med Major. As previously stated, I'm Music Education (which might as well be a double major).
The other night my we entered into a debate over who's classes were more "mentally taxing" or more challenging. He was attempting to argue that his course schedule, while an hour less (technically) than mine was more difficult while I argued that it wasn't any more/less difficult than mine, but simply different. I spend my time practicing or slaving away in MacGamut. While he spends his time in a science/math program called Aleks and taking more lecture classes than I have. I spend less time in a lecture style classroom, and more time with instrument in hand. This doesn't make my academic path any more/less challenging than his. It's just a different approach to a different career. The debate ran in circles.
...He's at a state funded college, and I'm at a private liberal arts college...
I'll get it through his head later...
But let's say I was at USC with him. If I was in the music program, I would only be in the music program. I wouldn't be familiar with any buildings besides Koger and the School of Music (that doesn't even have a real name, how sad) building. But I'm at Converse, I'm taking classes in Kuhn and I'll have classes in Phifer and Carmichael. I'm not limited to a small tunnel of light that highlights my path as the challenging, high & mighty one. I can acknowledge (and experience) the complexities, struggles, and appreciations within various fields of study, not just one.
[I kind of accept that this is not what the question addressed, and seems rather tangential... but this was my take on it.]
[Point Four.]
On Convocation.
I'm not going to lie. I sat in the back and it was hard to take away much of anything from Dr. Mad's speech, which I'm rather upset by. All the upperclassmen who's had her as a professor sing her praises and I was looking forward to having that same appreciation and respect for her. Full Moon isn't the only group to blame for my exaggerated ADD that afternoon. The three girls in front of me were talkative and the epitome of what we discussed being horrible concert etiquette. Beyond them, my grumbling stomach was a disruption in itself.
What I took from the pieces of her speech that I did get to enjoy, was that we should enjoy the study abroad programs (while the opportunity cost is low) and expand our horizons in ways that only Converse could offer. We're at Converse to "Make Things Happen."
[Point One.]
While sitting in the "Center for Student Development and Success" Seminar the other day, they mentioned the assistance they offer "first generation college students" or something along those lines.
I am not one of those.
Everyone in my family back to my grandparents (and probably beyond) has gone to college, and all but one have succeeded in doing so. Surface value says that's why I'm in college. I'm "supposed" to be.
Diving a little deeper, you learn I want to teach music... can't do that without college.
Even deeper down, you learn how my brother's struggling without a college degree... don't care to scrap with that.
Then there's the monetary, secular, selfish part of me that wants the extra cash in my pocket... but who doesn't?
While I grew up in a family where it was generally accepted across the board that college was in my future, the benefits of college far outweigh the costs.
[Point Two.]
I'm a Clemson Tiger fan through and through. At my youngest years I had decided I was going to Clemson. I was going to make my grandfather proud, by sending me to his alma mater. Then I turned nine, learned there really wasn't a music program there, & turned around to Converse.
My cousin came to Converse.
I took private music lessons at Converse.
I love the size of Converse.
I love the Converse community and family. [Especially post-private school.]
I loved that we were the Converse All Stars. [Ah, well.]
I loved how when I step on Campus I feel like I'm supposed to be here,
where at the other schools I considered (Winthrop and South Carolina) I felt overwhelmed.
[Point Three.]
I do music.
It's all I really excel at. I'm mediocre at most everything, but music is what I am apparently best at. I've been in choirs at church since I was three. Chose flute at the age of three (although that pursuit was delayed until third grade) and began piano in second grade. The only other thing I'm really good at is teaching and entertaining kids. I'm really good at not condescending to children of any age. I can see myself being an elementary music teacher or a high school band director. Beyond that, I don't think I have the confidence or skill to pursue performance in either flute or voice, and don't want to tempt the fate of the "starving artist" so Music Education it is!
[Point Four.]
Oh gracious. Why are we even toying with this idea?
...I suppose I'd please my father by pursuing English. I would strive to either become a high school English teacher or a plain elementary school teacher. I'm okay at English, but not developed enough to stake my income on it. I enjoy it, but I can't see my life without music. I walk in time. I finger pieces constantly whether my flute is in hand or not. I sing arias in the shower. I just went on a tangent defending why I hope I never have to honestly face this situation.
-Maggie.
