Here is the transcription of my most recent video blog:
(And here’s the audio on AnchorFM)
Hey everybody, it’s Queen Mab here, and my last few posts have made me kind of nostalgic for college. So I wanted to share with you some advice that I got from one of my professors while I was in music school about what life would look like in “the real world” beyond college, okay?
And I remember this was during winter quarter when all of us music majors were very tired from applying to summer festivals and concerts and classes and all of the various demands that were upon us, and you know, we all were dragging in to rehearsal, and we’re gonna call her “Dr. Johnson.” And she was a conductor, okay? And Dr. Johnson said to us all, “Hey everyone. Are you all tired?”
And we were like, “Yeah.”
And then she was like, “Are you all just having a really hard time ‘cuz it’s winter quarter and the sun’s not out, and you’re all applying to festivals right now?”
And we were like “Uhhhhh…[nodding].”
And she said, “Okay, well, I’m going to give you some advice that my mentor, John Roofer, gave to me.” (By the way, that’s not his real name). “John Roofer noticed us all feeling like this during winter quarter, and he said to us, ‘You know, you will never have more time in your lives than you have right now. So take it all in…and push it all away.”
Okay. So I have spent many years thinking about this advice. I graduated from college in 2008, so it’s been a little while. And I will periodically stop and ask myself, “Were Dr. Johnson and John Roofer correct? Is it true that I now have less time than I did when I was in college, and so therefore, I had no right to be stressed out and miserable when I was in college?”
Here’s my answer. I do think it is true that one’s obligations increase with age. I mean, there’s no denying that. And there’s no denying that I don’t have the same kind of time to practice and improve my skill at my instrument that I did when I was in college. However, this is where I think that Dr. Johnson and John Roofer got it wrong. I have more choice now about how I use the time that I have than I did when I was in college. When I was in college, I was essentially at the mercy of my professors. Everything that I did, I had to do in order to please them. And that was what my song that I posted a few days ago called “Be Like You,” is all about, okay?
So you know, if I could go back in time and talk to myself in college, I would tell her, “You know what? You do have a right to be stressed out.” A music major is tough, man. I mean…it’s the same level of work as if you were an engineering major or pre-med or something like that. Now, you’re not going to make the same kind of money when you graduate as somebody who’s an engineer or someone who’s pre-med, but it’s still a huge amount of work, so I think that we were entitled to some empathy, although I don’t really think Dr. Johnson was in the position to give it. And I’m happy to be where I am now even if I do have more obligations than I did when I was in college…’cuz I can make my own choices about what I do, and that’s pretty great.
Anyway, that’s all I have for you today. Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and if you’d like to see more of my content, you can visit queenmabmusic.com. By the way, I’m getting ready to do my solo show “Yes, No, Maybe So” at the Santa Monica Playhouse on October 19. You can see it in person, or you can see it online, and it’s FREE! And I will post a link below to that. That’s all I got for you today. Bye!