Being a college student has honestly been a dream come true. I get to choose my own classes, sleep in whenever I want, and I've met some of the greatest people in the world all in this small little bubble. Whitewater has been an amazing experience through and through. It's given me the confidence and the push I needed to realize everything I can do and everything I want to do.

Until I started school, I wanted to be a music teacher. Plain and simple. I wanted to teach at the high school band level and that's really as far as my hopes and dreams pushed. It wasn't until about November when I saw a lecture on Renaissance motets that I realized that I have a huge passion for music history and the underlying reasons behind why we as musicians do what we do. It sparked a flame in me and my brain started to turn. After a few weeks, I decided I wanted to get a degree in musicology or music history from a larger university after I've finished my undergrad. That's when the rolling eyes and looks of pity started.

It started with my friends, then it was my studio. I would say the big hopes and plans I would have for the future and they would roll their eyes, saying "Do you really want to go to school for eight years?" And honestly, that thought isn't terrible to me. To be in an environment where I can learn and advance myself, that's actually a dream come true. Yet, no one understood and they would just brush it aside as a momentary infatuation. As if my goals were just too much.

I ran into problems again just recently. In music school, you have certifications; Instrumental, Vocal, and General. Usually, people do just one, sometimes they'll do two, it's extremely rare for someone to have the drive and want to do all three certifications. Well, here I am. Ambitious as hell and willing to put in the years, effort, and work that it takes. Yet, I can't even count the number of times I've been that it's "too difficult", or it's "crazy that you want to be in school soo long. Why even do that?" The list goes on and on, people telling me that my dreams are too big, my ambition too crazy. I've been told that I should settle. Settle for being a high school band director with a bachelor's degree and unfulfilled dreams. Settle to always wonder if I could have, could I have done it, could I have gotten my Doctorate in Saxophone, could I have done all the fantastic things I once dreamed as an eighteen-year-old. The words "could" and "settle" are the saddest ones in my vocabulary.

And I refuse to settle.

I refuse to have my dreams ripped away from me by people who doubt that it's possible. Because it is. It is entirely possible to have triple certifications, go to grad school, get more degrees and become a teacher or perhaps even a professor. It's possible to take your goals and achieve them because that's all in your hands. If you give up and give in, allow those people around you to tell you have you're supposed to feel or live your life, you'll ever be happy.

I am ambitious. Wildly so in fact. I have dreams that stretch higher than I can tell because I'm still young. I still have four years here to decide where I want to go and who I want to be. It might take me four, six, or even eight years but one day I'll graduate with my head held high. I'll be proud of my achievements and I'll be ready to take on the world. Ambition is a blessing, not a curse. It is a driving force in transforming me into the music educator I've always wanted to be. So no, I am not "too" ambitious. I'm simply more so than you are.