For a while I didn’t have an answer to “what are you going to do after college.” That’s what happens when you have a music degree, I suppose, but now I can answer it. And I don’t think that “be a missionary in 11 different countries” is the answer most people are expecting.
But I wasn’t always a music major with no idea what my career aspirations were. When I was in high school I decided that I wanted to be a choral music teacher. It made sense – I loved singing (still do, by the way) and I had great music teachers who had really inspired me over the years. When I was a sophomore I started taking private lessons outside of school and putting all of my focus into music. I went to area all-state and all county chorus two years in a row and, not surprisingly, became a music education major. Music was my life 24/7 as both an interest and academic pursuit. I struggled with my choice of major on and off, but I often assumed it was because I was in the early stages, or that I needed more practical experience. Then, last spring I got a great observation placement, where I worked closely with a host teacher (Who happed to be a Roberts alum) in a K-12 school. I enjoyed it and I got to know the students over the course of the semester, even helping out with their spring concert, but something that my host teacher told me really stuck with me. (Which I am slightly paraphrasing as well as I can remember it.)
“There are three kinds of music education majors. The first are the ones who really want to be performers, but get teacher certifications as a backup, then there are people who like music and figure they might as well teach, and then there are those who really love teaching, and music just happens to be their subject. The best music teachers come from the third category.”
I thought this over and realized that I didn’t fall into the third category. If anything I was the second – my only real teaching desire was for upper-level choir, and it would take me a long time to get there based on where most music teachers start out (usually elementary or middle school general music, which I did not want any part of). Also complicating matters was Enactus. For the first time in my life I could see myself enjoying other fields – maybe marketing or management. I was seriously questioning my plans, and over the summer I finally accepted that I didn’t want to be a teacher anymore, but I didn’t think that I had any other options. I was going into my senior years and was supposed to student teach in the fall. My only option was to switch to a Bachelor of Arts in music, which wouldn’t really give me any career credentials. Then again, having an education degree wouldn’t apply to anything besides teaching music, and no matter what I was going to end up at the same place. Having a music degree and no idea what I wanted to do with it.
Still, I pressed on hoping to finish strong and even met my would-be master teacher, but something still wasn’t right. I was co-managing a new Enactus project and I just couldn’t justify putting all of my time into student teaching, when it wasn’t something I wanted to do at all. It wasn’t fair to me, Enactus, or the students I would have been teaching. Especially the students I would have been teaching. However, I still thought I was stuck with it.
My first placement was ready to go and I just had the weekend free before I would begin on the following Monday, but the tides turned in one pivotal moment. As I sat in my friend Deanna’s living room, lamenting over my situation, she asked me a question that changed everything.
“What would you do if it wasn’t too late?”
The answer was obvious to me: withdraw from student teaching and graduate with just a music degree. Thankfully I wasn’t alone when I arrived to this conclusion, because Deanna helped me keep my head together as I found classes I could register for, and ran across campus multiple times to obtain all of the necessary signatures. By the end of the day it was done. All of the professors I talked to were willing to let me join their classes a week late, and I had a plan for the rest of the year.
I definitely questioned my decision more than once after the fact, but now that it’s been an entire semester and then some, I can tell I made the right choice. And if I had stuck with student teaching I probably wouldn’t have ended up finding out about the World Race. So here I am: a soon-to-be college graduate with a music degree that I admit doesn’t have too much practical value, but now with a purpose and a goal.
