Yes, I decided to start a blog of my own, for various reasons. First off, I haven't posted any public journal entries in about a year and a half, and I was starting to miss doing so. I do have a separate journal -- a private one that I've been typing in, on and off, since about 1996 -- and until recently I hadn't touched *that* one in almost a year. So there was a decent chunk of my life where I wasn't writing anything at all, which is actually somewhat strange for me -- my life is so deeply entwined with my writing that it's easy for me to get psychologically disorganized if I'm not doing it. Even my most mundane entries allow me time to reflect upon things in an organized manner. But I had good reasons for this hiatus: I was undergoing some pretty dramatic changes over the past year, and while most of them have been positive, the grimmer ones were things I realized I needed to work through on my own, without the benefit of words. And work through them I did.
I spent a good deal of today reading my old LJ posts and copying them onto my hard drive. I'm at the beginning of 2005 now, and there's still quite a ways to go, but the file's already some hundred and thirty odd pages long. Where did I find the time to write all this?? I must have had LOADS of time on my hands...[flips to all the entries which begin with "I'm swamped" or "I'm so screwed for next week"]
The second reason, obviously, is that Livejournal seems to have been largely abandoned by our particular circle, which I suppose is just part of the natural course of things. I'm sure in time these we'll leave these blogs behind too...for now, though, I feel the primal urge to post stuff, in a slightly less outdated forum. And stuff I shall post.
The title of my blog suggests that I'm nearing the end of my academic career at UofT in music. This is true, but only if you look at it from a relative point of view: I'm entering my eighth year at UofT (eighth! oh the madness!) and so, two more of years in addition to this one doesn't seem so far away. Three years from now I will have completed my doctorate in music composition, on top of my master's and bachelor's degree (both obtained from the same institution.)
How do I feel about that? Well, actually, pretty damn good, considering how insecure I was about the whole thing just a few years back. For me, it was never a question about whether staying at the same university for three degrees was the smartest thing to do academically; it's not, and I've always known that. Aside from my teacher Christos, whom I now consider a friend (beyond just a phenomenal mentor), I've pretty much milked everything I can from my studies here. It was about whether a more varied and stimulating academic experience elsewhere outweighed the potential opportunities I had in Toronto. After one year of doing my doctorate at UofT, all I can say is: I'm glad I didn't leave!
Anyway, I will continue this some other time. It's getting late, and my eyes are droopy. But there will be more to come...
4 comments:
Welcome to the Blogging World! (or "blogosphere" as its oft called... don't really care for that term). So I can expect that you'll start commenting on my entires now? :P
Anyhow, it's just nice knowing that I'm not the only one to spend his entire 20s enrolled in academic programs, though you'll manage to be a year ahead in finishing! :P
Yup! I certainly like it here, but I'm still trying to figure out how to link to others...
Woohoo! ^_^ I thought it was amusing how you commented on my blog that you had a blog but didn't leave a link or anything. Or did you? My memory is a bit wonky. Must be all the smoke I inhaled yesterday.
You linked me! Huzzah!
Dude, where be a new post?
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