So obviously I just stopped blogging on this platform. I'll get back to it eventually. Or not. I'm taking a break from all social media. It seemed necessary for my mental health.
The last few years have been busy and … challenging:
- 2015 Happened.
- 2016 Let's call it The Lost Year. (Obviously words failed me.)
- 2017 about broke me. Literally. Mentally.
- 2018 was ridiculous, proving 2017 was just a warm up. (Good thing I was already broken so it couldn't hurt as much.#2018TrashCanFire I thought things were going okay, but maybe not?)
- 2019 was such a blur. I know there were highlights, but then stuff happened and carried into the next year...
- And then in March#2020 really took a turn. Who can even categorize 2020? Do we dare?
I kinda want a do-over of some of the last few years. But life doesn’t work that way.
So for now, I'm hunkering down. Regrouping. Trying to stay safe and sort some stuff out.
Stay safe everyone. Stay well.
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Friday, September 5, 2008
State of Arts in the Country -- Appalling
The choral department was literally my lifeline in high school. I wasn't a cool kid. I wasn't a jock. I wasn't one of the popular girls. What I was, was the musical girl. The one voted most likely to ... um, actually end up where I am now, ironically. I was in almost all of the various choral groups, but mostly I was the primary pianist for the school from my sophomore year through graduation. If it needed piano accompaniment, there I was -- for college auditions, spring and winter concerts, various recitals, the major high school spring musicals, you name it. While I did get to sing occasionally, I usually had to "shut up and play." Fine with me. That was my niche. I was comfortable with that. I was good at it. I had a place. I had friends. More importantly, because I got to hang out with very talented and diverse actors, musicians, and singers, I had a community. We had our own wing where we used to hang out. We had a common bond and a common language. Until senior year, all the cool kids and the jocks used to taunt us, until they realized that a) they needed tutoring from us "smart" kids and b) they needed extracurriculars like chorus and the musicals on their college applications. Once they spent time with us, they realized that those hey, those music nerds weren't so bad. I even have yearbook entries to prove it.
I bet that if a survey was done on my fellow choral program alumni that most of us have done pretty well for ourselves. I'm sure that there are college degrees of varying advanced levels. I'm sure we've gone on to a variety of professional and interesting careers. While we may not have gone on to be professional or even still-practicing musicians, I bet most of us still have a love of the arts that was fostered in those hallways, in those practice rooms, on those stages, and on those rickety risers. Thanks to the choral program, we learned to sing in unison and harmony, so I wouldn't be suprised if they could join in me in a chorus of protest about the situation. We should "pitch" a fit.
I think that it's just shameful that, in order to save money, or for what ever reason, this important program has been cut. I feel for those poor kids in my hometown and the local communities. Somewhere out there in the quiet corners of Connecticut are students who have the desire to be musicians, but may not have the money for an instrument or lessons. Chorus may have been their one way to participate, their glimmer of hope at some musical fulfillment. What will those kids do now? Where will they find their community? Will the instrumental programs be next? What about the fine arts classes?
For shame hometown, for shame.