1.The Number of Classes You Take Compared to the Credit Weight
You love your art form but now you are stuck with the unfair consequence where your performance class has a weight of one credit or even less! But the class is still two hours and meets more than once a week. So when your friends are taking the class number of credits, they have five classes you have ten.
2.Taking Classes That Literally Do Not Help Your Major At All But It's Required
Sure there’s writing which we all need to take because no matter what you need to write even if your living consists of dancing or playing music. But classes like Greek Civilization, Roman Civilizations or Psychology, and I am not so sure any of those really make a difference for majors studying in an art field.
3.The Extra Work That You Get No Credit For
On top of ten classes to prepare for and study for just like everyone else we have practice. Extra practice for ensembles and groups, extra practice for performances, solo performances, and shows. We have to attend multiple rehearsals and practice every single day! Not three days a week, Every. Single. Day. It is at least an extra hour and a half to three hours a day in practice a preparation which doesn’t get much credit or even a pat on the back, it’s just kind of expected of majors in this field.
4.Secluding Yourself From the World
There are a lot of moments where you become so busy on rehearsing a part or practicing something that your non-art major friends will become frustrated and not understand you. You’ll lock yourself in the practice space for four-five hours and every time your friends ask to hang out your response? “I can’t, I’m practicing.” Just what they want to hear. But hey you’re getting better and one day people will realize why you do what you do and how worth it, it truly is.
5.Juries… Lovely, Lovely Juries
Juries are an evaluation of your job as an artist. It is the tell all of your work for the semester determined by the professors of your instrument, field, whichever relates. It is the most stressful time because students want to do their best, perform at their greatest, and be recognized as the best out of everyone. It requires hard and diligent preparation on multiple areas of the artists’ field and it sure gets ugly sometimes; the pressure is definitely on and it does not look pretty.
6.You Get to Make Art Every Single Day
While other people worry about papers and research projects, books that need to be read and presentations that have to be given, art majors get to make art. We get to do something we love all day, every day for the rest of our lives. Every day is made up of music, performance, determination, growth and strength through the greatest thing on earth. You don’t get this experience through anything else, it is unique.
7.You Work Hard and Finally Get to Show Others What You’ve Done with 50 People You Connect With
You work really hard in rehearsals going crazy to try and perfect everything. Directors get stressed and sometimes it comes to a point where everyone starts to hate each other for who’s lacking to bring the performance down but then suddenly it clicks; suddenly things start to fall into place, everyone feels a positive vibe over the group and then the day of the performance comes. The feeling when walking on stage, the feeling even you nail a part, the feeling at the very end when you bow and look out into the audience to see people standing and clapping, there is nothing like it. It’s a high that no one else could ever give you in life and you get to share it with those people you started with in the beginning.
8.You Are Studying What You Love
You’re not in school every day for something because you’ll make a lot of money or because you’ll be really successful if anything it might be the opposite for a long time. You go to school every day to do something you love. You are in school for something you are really passionate about, that you love with all your being. The thing that keeps you going is what you are studying, and it doesn’t get better than that.
