Gift of Time

[Shadow Phoenix]

Greetings all:

I apologize for my rather extended absence. Thank you to those of you who prodded me occasionally on messengers of Facebook. It's nice to know in times of extreme busyness that my friends still think of me. I have likewise thought of you often and looked forward to a day when I would be able to return with a conscience free of the weight of work.

Senior year proved busier than expected--finishing two majors and a minor while holding three part time jobs will do that. I don't know how many books I read, papers I wrote, or musical events I performed in over the last academic year, much less this last semester. I'm very bad at saying no. After graduation, I went to Ireland with my school choir on tour, and have spent my time since then traveling around and generally unable to do very much about my life online. Today is the first day I feel comfortable coming back here. I still have plenty of things that need to be done (I am, after all, unemployed while I look into what to do with the next phase of my life), but it is good to log on to this board again. I really missed you all.

I am blessed with the gift of time, and thus I am blessed again to be in the presence of great people. Next stop is the Promised Land to see what I missed. Thankfully, if I remember correctly, I left myself in a situation where I would be alone for a bit for travel. Time to catch up--with it and with all of you.

In other words...HI!

[AltruisticCrono]

Welcome back!

Sounds like you've kept yourself plenty busy since our last meeting. Out there, living your life and experiencing many things that you can bring back, express, and use for many aspects of personal / professional conversations. I bet you've got lots of interesting stories of everything you've accomplished. ^.^

I wonder if it might be the case like AZ that you'd like to keep yourself busy no matter what you are doing (even when taking a day off). Always reading/absorbing anything you can get your hands on.

So whats going to be your main focus for employment? (I don't have Facebook, so I prolly can't read your entries )

[The Waffle King]

you survived!

I too am wading through the troubles of unemployment after college. It's not fun, and it's looking like I may have to settle for a temp job while I continue my search for something full time, neither of which are easy to find around here.

But yes, do tell of your funtastic experiences. Do you fee like you got your money's worth of education?

[ZaCloud]

Welcome back. Was afraid you'd outgrown us and wouldn't come back. Glad to see you return. Maybe now this place can stop being so dead.

[Shadow Phoenix]

Thanks all!

AC: Yeah, I have definitely experienced quite a bit. My academic foci led me to earn a dual degree (BA/BS) in Music Performance and Biopsychology, with a minor in Philosophy. With the music, I focused primarily on vocal things, and then primarily on classical music. While in college, I gave 4 voice recitals (2 joint, 2 solo) in which I performed several song cycles and several other vocal works. I also performed in 4 operas, 2 at school and 2 outside of school. In addition, I was in numerous (over a dozen throughout the 4 years, up to 9 at a time) ensembles, singing, playing French Horn, or playing bass, and I gave more concerts than I can count between them. I didn't just do classical music, however, as I had time to focus on musical theatre, jazz, contemporary, and rock genres as well (either with a teacher or on my own). In fact, I got a band together for our May Coffeehouse and we did Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Very fun!

With Biopsych, it was a little bit harder to focus. Initially, I wanted to go to medical school, and so I was taking classes with that kind of focus. I wanted to go for neurology or neurosurgery, or something like that, but then I realized I didn't want to be in school for the rest of my life and deal with many of the issues that beset doctors. So I changed focus. I tried to find the ways that biopsych would fit with music, which looked like a sort of research-based, science-heavy music therapy sort of thing along the lines of what Oliver Sacks suggests in many of his books or what Mark Tramo has done in some experiments. Either way, my focus was still neurological and psychological. People. Brains. Zombies? Hmmm...

Philosophy was a latecomer addition and I did a whole bunch of things for that. Philosophy of Time, Ethics of Medicine, Philosophy of Religion, Existentialism, and Phenomenology. Just kind of a fleshing out of everything. Horizon-expanding and wonderful.

I also wrote for our school newspaper this year--news, entertainment, reviews, previews, op-eds, whatever. I got involved in our theatre department, too, which I had missed in the 3 years prior. I spoke on panels, traveled to Canada and Ireland with ensembles, and helped with the advancement and development campaigns of the college through interviews and such. Thankfully, I was also able to maintain some semblance of a social life--celebrating many a friend's 21st birthday, visiting my girlfriend, and making late-night-diner-runs. It's been busy...

And now I am looking for a career advancing towards Voice Therapy--a combination of Otolaryngology, Music Therapy, Speech Therapy, Neurology, Vocal Pedagogy, Psychology, and a few other things. Rehabilitation, teaching, psychophysiological health, injury prevention, and stuff like that. I would like to work with current teachers of harsher vocal techniques (screaming), and develop a more definite pedagogy to help people avoid injury and maximize their potential, as well as working up pedagogies for other genres. That will free me up to do a lot of what I want to do, and continue to perform "on the side." I'll probably be able to do some outreach community benefit stuff like a choir for underprivileged inner city kids or an ensemble program for a nursing home.

So yes, I am very much like AZ. Since I graduated 3 weeks ago, I've read 5 books. That was while I was traveling through Ireland on a tour with the choir, then visiting a friend in Rhode Island for her birthday, and visiting Florida with my sister for a couple days. And now you all have given me plenty of reading material, which I hope to get through soon. But I need to go and start looking at jobs for the next year. I'm taking the next year off academically before I go to graduate school. Even though I seem to have a specific idea of what I want to do, I have no idea of how to get there. So the next year will be spent resting for the first time in YEARS, spending time with friends, traveling to visit people, keeping intellectually and musically engaged, and mostly researching graduate programs so that I can figure out what the best options are.

Waffles: I'm right there with you! I've got a bit easier time of it in a metropolitan area, but it's still tricky in the economic conditions we find ourselves in. But yeah--I definitely got my money's worth. More than just knowledge gained, I have an ability to integrate so many of the things that I've learned in an extremely interdisciplinary manner because of my school's focus on such. I feel like much more of a capable person than I did four years ago. Now that I'm done with school for a while, though, I mostly want to be in relationship with people again. I haven't had the time to do that very much lately...

ZC--outgrown you? NEVAAAAR! Glad to be back.

[Shadow Phoenix]

...did I say too much?

>_<

[ZaCloud]

Heh, no, pretty much all one can say is "whoah!" or something.

Still unpacking from my move, I'll check out your vids when I have time/brain-cell-recovery to take 'em in properly.

[whicker]

I keep going past the topic title, and I keep thinking of Chrono Cross.

Or rather, the music thereof... must be some crossed neurons: I know one of the songs is Springs' Gift, and another is Scars of Time. Yet another is "The Dream that Time Dreams".

well whatever, I think we all made a superficial pact to stop stabbing Kid. I hope.

[AltruisticCrono]

Jun 10, 2010 19:13:51 GMT -5 Shadow Phoenix said:

...did I say too much?

>_<

Nah, but it is definitely "WHOA". I don't even know some of those words of study mean. I'll need to look up what you've been doing.

So with all of those qualifications... what is your dream job at the moment?

[Sephiroth X]

Jun 7, 2010 20:00:48 GMT -5 AltruisticCrono said:

(I don't have Facebook, so I prolly can't read your entries )

JOIN US!

Anyways, welcome back again SP. All I can really say in response to this thread is damn, lots of stuff. But I share AC's question, what's your ideal job?

[Shadow Phoenix]

CHRONO CROSS FOR THE WIN! I will always support such awesome.

*stabs Kid anyway...*

As for dream career:

And now I am looking for a career advancing towards Voice Therapy--a combination of Otolaryngology, Music Therapy, Speech Therapy, Neurology, Vocal Pedagogy, Psychology, and a few other things. Rehabilitation, teaching, psychophysiological health, injury prevention, and stuff like that. I would like to work with current teachers of harsher vocal techniques (screaming), and develop a more definite pedagogy to help people avoid injury and maximize their potential, as well as working up pedagogies for other genres. That will free me up to do a lot of what I want to do, and continue to perform "on the side." I'll probably be able to do some outreach community benefit stuff like a choir for underprivileged inner city kids or an ensemble program for a nursing home.

Basically, teaching people to sing for a living with a multi-faceted approach and lots of different goals.

[Shadow Phoenix]

I think I lied about my gift of time. Ow...

[AltruisticCrono]

Oct 2, 2010 8:08:41 GMT -5 Shadow Phoenix said:

I think I lied about my gift of time. Ow...

*Wonders* Ow? Still busy?

So yes. My time has gone bye bye since I decided to hit the fitness center every-other day now and work on 'dat AMV!