Welp. I’m sitting here sick in bed (I’ve been sick off and on for the three weeks that I’ve been home and missed a lot of work because of it) so I guess I might as well finish what I started in the airport! It’s been quite the nine months. I’m sorry for my continued absence on this blog, but between school, increased health struggles, and the de-motivation of not having a camera, I just haven’t been able to keep up. I’m hoping for the chance to write about some of the things I learned over the school year throughout the summer. But for now, here are a few highlights of the school year: 1. Classes I’ve loved every class I’ve taken this semester. Every one had its fun times and its difficulties. Every one had great friendships and awesome professors. Some of my favorites were String Techniques, Music Production and Engineering, and Old Testament. I also loved Music Theory, but I already knew the material, so I tuned out most of the class except for the fun times. And my applied lessons were amazing! Both semesters I took piano, voice, and songwriting. I learned so much from Dr. Menth, and after having the same piano teacher for almost seventeen years, it was refreshing to have a new one (sorry Mom!). I grew so much in my vocal technique. Like, my singing is almost unrecognizable from what it was sometimes. And songwriting was just flat out fun, because the whole class crashed Professor Denler’s office every Monday evening and sang our songs for each other. And our final was being locked in the room together for fifteen minutes and writing a song together! 2. Friendships Guys, it’s been twelve years since I had really good friends that I saw consistently and lived in the same place as I did, with a couple of exceptions through those twelve years. It was amazing to make a few good friends and start learning to trust people again as I learned that the people around me cared about me! I’m not used to be able to turn to people nearby with my problems, so that was a big leap of faith and learning curve for me. Choir – particularly tour – really helped with this. I walked away from this school year with a large family made up of primarily the entire music center, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that! I was especially blessed to end up in a small group of friends called the “Nerd Family” made up of a strings player, a guitarist/vocalist/engineer, a crazy musician, and a marine biologist with no musical skill whatsoever who watch Marvel movies together. My professors were amazing, too, and were especially kind and gracious about working around my health issues. I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the support shown to me by the whole CCU community both in getting me to school and through school. 3. Opportunities I’ve gotten to do so much! I was in two primary ensembles and two smaller ensembles throughout the year – University Choir, Chamber Strings, President’s String Quartet, and the dance ensemble. Each one was an amazing opportunity through which I was able to hone many skills. As the school’s only violist, I was able to get many unique opportunities such as orchestra pit for the spring musical and several student projects. 4. Trust This year was really rough healthwise. At the beginning of the spring semester, it was a miracle that I wasn’t in the hospital. Still not sure how I pulled that off. God’s grace is the only explanation. But through that and also the aforementioned aspect of new friendships and learning to open myself up to people, my relationship with God was broken down to very basic and raw elements. Much of my life has been made up of a running conversation with God, but this year it was often just snatches of, “God help me, I have nothing. I need you to get me through this.” I’m quite honestly not sure how I’m alive right now, but I made it through with God’s help. It was literally step by step. It took many tiny moments of looking at the path just ahead and still not seeing where my foot would land as I stepped out in faith – again. It was exhausting. But God carried me through. Anyways, that’s a snatch of my year in review. I hope to elaborate on a lot more things throughout the summer, but for now this will have to do. I have many ideas floating around in my head, it’s just finding the time, energy, and WiFi to do it! See y’all around!
3 Comments
Christina Schipper
6/1/2019 07:06:16 pm
Which camera do you have in mind?
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Dani
6/2/2019 12:27:29 pm
I've been shooting on a Canon T5i for the last couple of years, and I had already been thinking about an upgrade. I'm planning on getting a Canon 5D Mark III or higher, but I just don't know when that's going to happen. :)
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Mary Yeaw
6/5/2019 08:03:52 am
Dani!!!! Your posts are such a blessing to read! It sounds like you’ve had an amazing (but harddd!!) year! So happy and excited for all the wonderful times you’ve had! Praying for your summer ahead!❤️
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Dani M
My mind is a strange place. I am a Christian first and foremost, but I'm also a musician and an artist. I love science and natural health. I love the ice and I love to dance. This page will contain as much randomness as myself. Archives
July 2019
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