For half of my high school career, I had my life planned out. I wanted to go to college for Music Therapy, get my degree, go into the world, and be happy in my field of work. I prayed for months and months to get accepted into the music school of my dreams. I was generally new to music, too. Being fresh out of high school with only two years of lessons to back myself up, there was a lot to learn, not only about music, but about life as a musician, and life in general!

When I got accepted to my top music school, I was basically jumping out of my skin. But most of all, I was quite shocked that after only two years, I got into an AMAZING music school. I was going to be studying piano on the same level as those who had been playing for their whole life! How impressive, right? Wrong.

At my huge high school, that now feels small compared to all of those that join me at Temple, being a music major was unheard of! "She plays the piano? How talented!" "Going to school for music? She must have dedicated her whole life to this!" Funny thing is, I didn’t.

One short week into majoring in music, I found myself crying. A LOT.

Temple was great. I loved Philly. What was going wrong? I was crying at the piano when I used to look forward to sitting there for hours. I was dreading all of my classes when at one point all that I wanted to do was music and only music.

It happens, though.

Not all of us are cut out for our high school dreams.

Now I'm the former music kid that sits through anatomy wondering where the hell my head was when all I could think about was music. My eyes have been opened to so many amazing new subjects, careers, and majors. I feel like I've missed out on so much.

Picking what you want to do for the rest of your life is not easy. I had my heart set on my life as a musician, but here I am, a brand new undecided major. I don’t regret this, either. I’m so thankful for all of the opportunities that being a musician has offered me. I’ve made countless amounts of friends in my past few years. I’ve learned about music in its truest, rawest form. I’ve seen how music can heal. And, above all, I’ve given myself a challenge, accepted the challenge, and found out (on my own) that it wasn’t for me.

Now, I’m lazy...compared to when I spent hours at the piano. Now, I can sit in bed and work on assignments that have nothing to do with touching a piano or reserving practice time.

The fact that I pulled myself together in two years to get accepted into an amazing music program is an achievement to myself. Although I didn’t go further with this dream, I’ve shown myself that if I want something bad enough, I can achieve it.

I'm thankful for the music school here at Temple and the opportunity that I was given. The programs and teachers are amazing and I'll support every single music student for the rest of my college life because I know that it isn't easy. Next time you see a music major, appreciate what they do. Music isn't as easy as it is perceived to be.

I guess what I'm getting at is if you’re unhappy, find a way to cut the negative energy out of your life and make yourself happy. Why pay (a lot of) tuition to earn a degree that makes you never want to work a day in your life after college? Find what you love and be that; even if you’ve been training for years. In this case, my time was not wasted, but I learned lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.