Because I love to play the piano.

I was very productive today.


I woke up at 8:15 (before my alarm even started going off. Don't you love that?), took a shower, put a couple loads of laundry in downstairs, and went to bible study at Susie's (our resident director) apartment. She made us a delicious breakfast casserole that had potatoes, peppers, bacon, cheese and over-easy eggs on top along with fresh orange juice and biscuits with butter and jam. To say the least: I devoured it. We went around the table and talked about our weeks, and turns out that it has been a tough week for almost everybody. We always read a little story that makes us ponder some thoughts then talk about prayer requests that we need for the upcoming week.

After some time in prayer, I returned to my room to find Emma still asleep and the sun beaming through our window. It was pretty gorgeous. A couple days ago, I borrowed Lydia Aldefer's awesome camera (an SLR) for a mini-photoshoot with Emma for an art project, so I grabbed it off my desk and took a few pictures. That will be my next investment: an awesome camera. I became very quickly attached to that thing. The picture quality is outstanding and it's really easy to use. I have my eye on the Nikon D5000, so hopefully I can save up enough money once my birthday roles around.

I fell asleep until brunch where I met with a group from my Media, Law & Ethics class about a presentation we are giving on Friday. I'm feeling much better about it now that I actually understand what's happening. We're presenting an ethics case on Viacom vs. Google/YouTube. Viacom is the major corporation that owns MTV primarily, but a few other branches in addition. Google obviously owns YouTube. The question is, is it ethical for YouTube to be supporting accounts of individuals who upload uncopyrighted material? From songs to movies to TV shows? It should turn out great. Definitely one less stress off my shoulders for the week now that I understand it more.

After brunch I came back and headed over to the library for the rest of the afternoon. That place works wonders when it comes to knuckling down to focus. I got most of my Bible presentation finished and the rest that I have to do tomorrow shouldn't take long at all. I'm beginning to feel like I'll have more time this next week to accomplish the things I need to do than I thought I would. My only class on Tuesdays got canceled for this week (yay), so I won't have anything until my 4:00 work shift. Fabulous.

After dinner, Chance and I went into down to grab dinner and stop by Michael's and Target. We had fun getting everything we needed to get and had several great talks about random life events and issues. I definitely feel very comfortable and bluntly honest around him. We all can't wait to have him here with us next year. We headed back to campus and watched the Concerto-Aria competition, where we heard Jay Mast and Lydia Short play piano concertos, Allen Shenk play a french horn concerto, Carrie Rivera and Martin Brubaker sing an aria, and Elspeth Stalter, who I'm in a trio with, play a violin concerto. All of them were so beautiful, especially Elspeth's. She has worked so. dang. hard. And it shows. She helped cheer me up yesterday when I was frustrated about Matthew Hill (my piano prof here) and definitely has an understanding of where I come from as a new music student. What a talented and awesome girl she is.

After the concert, I came back to my room very shortly and went and practiced for an I saw the performance to do something with my music. Not just play through it, DO something with it. And the hardest part about all of this is explaining it to other people. I feel like I've been...not bothered, really, but questioned about my music a lot lately. I've been asked, "What's the point in practicing if you're already good?". Well, to get better and learn more music, I said. It's hard to explain that music is not just something you learn and then you have perfect every time after that. It takes hours and hours of repetition and patience to nail something. It takes every single day touching your instrument with a purpose to get better. It takes feeling and energy and persistence and an overflowing amount of love for what you hear when you press down the keys or put the bow down on a string or blow air through a mouthpiece. "Why practice on a Saturday night?" "Why are you always at the music center?" "Do you really have to practice almost everyday?"

Yes, I do. Because I love to play the piano.
Regardless of any professor bringing me down and laughing in my face, of any tough questions that might erk me about being a music major, of any other things that I would rather do at that split moment, I love to play the piano and I always will.


Sometimes frustration is a definite hard wall that's built quickly in front of us. But through the Lord, we are given a wrecking ball.

That's all.