Jael's post: Overwhelmed but Proud

To start off, I am actually very proud of myself due to this week. As I am music major, most of my courses are in music, which are each very demanding. I took a placement test in music theory and placed out of fundamentals (hooray!), I earned a 95% and higher on sight singing drills in my elementary sight singing class, and I auditioned for and was placed in a jazz choir. Though one might say it is a little early in the game to feel accomplished I reserve the right anyway. But this is not to say that these tests and auditions were a breeze, I worked my butt off every single second. When preparing for my audition the people on the metro must have thought I was crazy because I kept singing the same song over and over again, and they must have thought worse this morning because I was preparing for a quiz what would require me to conduct and vocalize rhythm at the same time.

This week set the pace for the rest of the year. I am going to have to sit down and actually invent a study schedule for myself. I now understand why my mother said I should not work this year even though money is tight. To be succesful I need to dedicate atleast a hour every day to each of the three instruments that I play, I need to constantly refresh myself on theory, and my English teacher recommends that I study six hours a week for her class. This weekend I plan to take all my notes and reorganize them to keep things simple.

I am a little excited about freshman seminar. It seems like a good place to listen to and get involved in an educated discussion/debate. I want to change the world and therefore I pride knowing what everyone else is thinking. However, I am slightly concerned about the level of afrocentricity that may be presented in the class. Though I understand that Howard University is a HBCU, I feel that afrocentrism can be just as dangerous as we have seen eurocentrism become. I fear that it may limit students understanding of the human experience to just the afro-experience or information may be misrepresented in favor of African Americans. But I have not been in the class long enough to analyze whether my concern would even be a problem.

Thank you, and I can not wait until next class.