School... and other burning questions.

No. 1... I do NOT... I repeat do NOT have a thing for Cynthia. I am also not promoting her to any male readers out there! This came from 2 different individuals as well... Sheesh. I'm just fascinated by the fact that this little shy girl with her book sitting a discernible distance away from Gerard on the same 2 seater couch has grown up into a young confident lady. That's all. Seriously...

No 2...

A small number of people have indicated to me that I mention school but not my area of study. One even said that driving school is not school. For the record, I'm not taking driving lessons... yet... So I'm going to clear the air and talk about school. Those who've heard this for a million times can either click on the little x at the top right corner of your screen or click on the little red dot at the top left corner.

Now, I suppose I'll begin at the beginning. The importance of the beginning cannot be Diminished. After all, the beginning of a good story always Augments the main story. Never think that it is too Minor and dismiss it for you'll lose a Major part of the whole. Alright... I'm rambling here. Those who know Music Theory will understand what I'm rambling about.

Some months back, I was thinking about my future and the choices I had. I could do my private 'A's, go back to poly, sign on or do distance learning. To be frank, none of them were very appealing to me for various reasons. I was seriously at a lost about what to do. Out of the blue, someone mentioned to me, " Eh, why don't you try out for music? MOE are looking for music teachers. " Now, that really intrigued me and got me thinking. After all, according to the person, NIE accepts any Tom, Harry and Dick for music. Or so he/she said.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. After all, music is my passion and I love it to its deepest core. Give me a proper instrument(Steinway or fender... kidding) and I can play all day. However, there was a snag; I could not sight read... or read scores for that matter and my scales, fingering(get your mind out of the gutter) and technique were horrendous. In the end I decided to pray about it and I got others to do the same and the general consensus I had was go with the music and so I applied with MOE online and received my first shock.

They asked me for my grade and stated that there was a minimum requirement of Grade 5 theory and that I had to audition with at least a Grade 6 piece. They also stated that it was working with NAFA and that I would be there for 3 yrs and receive a Dip in Music before heading west to NIE. It didn't seem to me now that they accepted Tom's Hairy Dick in there! I mean, I have a grade 0 and I can't do classical music for nuts. Nevertheless, I submitted what was basically an empty application(save for my details) and hoped for the best.

Surprisingly, MOE called me up and asked if I could go for an interview with them. I thought to myself, "Maybe they interview all applicants. After all, they're paid OT and its government resources so they probably don't care." I went down and talked to them and basically told them that there was no mistake in my application and I indeed have never recieved music training. I told them that my main instruments were the electone and the keyboard and they said sure, they'll contact me if I'm shortlisted for the audition. To my greater surprise, they called me to tell me that that I was scheduled to go for an audition at NAFA which comprised of 2 pieces, sight-reading, aural and a theory test!!! I was nervous as hell. This was where the buck stops, I told myself. Now my gift of the gab and my bs counts for nothing. To make matters worse, there was a miscomm between the 3 parties and on the day itself, the head of department of music called me and told me that they only offered piano. This was on the day of the audition itself!!! To cut a long story short, I had to change my piece at literally the last minute. It was horrendous. I couldn't do the sight reading at all, my touch and technique were not good and the theory test included history, of which I knew nothing about. The only good thing I had going for me was the Aural segment. I was done for, dusted, finished.

Point to self. When God says he will do something, he will do it. Here I was, not trusting in HIM and being all worried and preparing myself to fail because logically speaking, they would not take me. God though, does not work on human logic. The bottom line is, I got accepted and I was the happiest person alive at that moment. I was jumping like a lunatic and didn't care that I looked like a fool doing it. Well, that's how I got into school and its only the 2nd week, but I know God will see me through. I know its not easy but hey, nobody said that it was going to be easy.

Till the next time then...