Questions and Reflections

Is it possible to be both the rocker and the responsible student?

I'm finding it difficult to plan a thesis, and keep the creative juices flowing into new music. Every time I begin humming a new tune that I think would sound great once it's laid down, I begin thinking of all the things that I have due. And, in classic namoname fashion, I singlehandedly pile one thing on top of the other in my head, until my fingertips can barely reach the top of the mountain I have created, and the prospective tune fizzles into nothing. Which is pretty funny considering the topic of my thesis. How can I systematically plan a paper that involves the power of the Pop Song when I can't even focus on finishing a single one these days?

In more positive news, I have victoriously passed through the fever/achey/sinus-y phase of the flu. I am now in the cough-my-brains-out/chest-on-fire phase, which is SO much better than Phase I. I mean that with no hint of sarcasm. Give me an ab workout any day, just leave my head alone.

It's funny. I was thinking today how last year at around this time I was very sick, almost the same as I am now. But I was so different. I was in a different place in my life, thinking of different things, writing different songs. Grad school was a dream. Teaching an even farther one. Another dream seemed closer than both of those things.

But here I am now, tackling the challenge of study with optimism, learning as I help others do the same. It's amazing how a year ago I felt the same physically, and yet now mentally, things couldn't be anymore different.