Right about the point when I opened up the New York State/St. Lawrence Chapter site, I realized that (I apologize for my lack of better phrasing), holy shit, I actually am moving to the other end of the country to pursue music scholarship. While I imagine Nova Scotia is actually covered by the mid-Atlantic Chapter and not the NY/St. Lawrence Chapter, both Chapters share the common feature of being on the other side of the country. Where I know absolutely no one. And where, in three and a half months, I will be arriving with a suitcase full of clothes and another full of books/scores, to make a fresh start.
Awesome? Absolutely.
Terrifying? Um. Yeah.
It's not like I hadn't thought about it before. My move is well-documented in the social networking grapevine, I spent most of the days after I got my acceptance letter in a state of ecstatic bliss, I've started thinking about non-Pacific Coast winter-wear, my parents are getting Air Miles cards. I thought about it when I persevered (only crying once!) through my last day at UVic (which, by the way, shall receive some over-due kudos in a later post).
And yet, I think tonight is the first time that it hit me. That's not to say I'm scared or having second thoughts. It's just that now, it's so undeniably real.
Moving on, in other news, in consideration of my friends who don't have blogger IDs, I have opened my comments section to all. Feel free to say hi and let me know that you're reading!
Tonight, for whatever reason, I am also feeling the need to express (a likely obvious statement) that this is not an academic blog. It's a blog about music, and academia, and music academia. But it's my blog on music/academia/the two combined. So it's also a blog about spirituality, philosophy, writing, books, life, events, people, places, community, issues, ideas, and other topics. Academic blogs undoubtedly discuss these things, but I want to feel free from time to time to write, unapologetically, without academic protocol (other than citing/attributing sources, of course), about some things that simply matter to me, and to the people and communities, musical and otherwise, around me.
Also, come on, I'm a second-year undergrad! Claiming to write an academic blog would be foolish. When push comes to shove, I'm not an academic.
Well, not yet, anyway...
*AMS stands for the American Musicological Society, which also covers most of (if not all) the Canadian provinces (possibly the territories as well; I'll admit to my own ignorance as far as that's concerned). It's an academic society devoted to promoting musicological scholarship through presentations of research at varying conferences, providing grants, et cetera.
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