Fourth Year

Fourth year is getting to the top of a hill you've been climbing for three years, and then realizing that the time has come to JUMP.

Some people are afraid they won't be able to get a job in their field; some know they won't get a job in their field unless they go to grad school or teacher's college, and don't want to do either because they're sick of school; some are afraid of living life alone from now on, and start looking frantically for a spouse (got that one down at least).

Personally, I'm a little scared of going to Korea - which currently looks like the most feasible way to pay off a good amount of debt as fast as possible.

It's also a little scary to take your degree into the "real world," and wonder if it will really mean something out there. College is one thing, because you're going for something specific, but a university degree is so open-ended in its applicibility that it's hard to know where to start sometimes.

I think it's important to have mentor figures in your life, people doing the kind of job that you want to do, and be able to ask them questions and receive encouragement. It's tough to bridge the gap between graduation and employment sometimes. Personally, I have a few options I know I could go for, it's just not entirely clear when and how to go about them.

1. Go to U of T or somewhere similar for an opera program
2. Do graduate school in voice or pedagogy or composition or something
3. Go to seminary and become a worship pastor?
4. Audition for an agent and start performing classical repertoire
5. Go to some other kind of program to bridge the gap between undergrad and professional

Basically, when I was in first year, and up until now, I've been gathering options like these into a bouquet of "stuff I can do with a B.A. in Music," but now that I'm actually graduating, all I have are these great ideas, without an actual decision. I told myself it was okay to not know exactly what I wanted to do, but like probably all fourth years, I feel the eyes of the world on me, watching to see what I do. . .especially with something like a music degree. You've all heard the jokes: "What does a music major say after they graduate?" - "Would you like fries with that?"

This is me procrastinating working on my essay. . ."The French Melodie: Its History and Implications for Singers."