To College Students

I was in school at the University of Louisville for five years, getting my undergrad in music education. I did all the "normal" college things: went out with friends, went to class most of the time, had fun, and learned a lot. I graduated in 2012 and haven't been back very much since then. 

By chance--well, by scheduling problems--I ended up back at the School of Music the other day waiting for my sister. I was planning on just hanging out in the music library until she came to pick me up. To my delight, though, the tenor and baritone professors were giving a joint concert! I sat in the back of the concert hall while I waited for my sister to pick me up and had these thoughts that I wanted to share with every college student:

• During college, you are surrounded by professionals who are highly respected in their fields and who want to share what they know with you. Take the time to learn from them! Don't just go to class--go to office hours, pick their brains, and make connections that will last. For most of you, this is the one time in your life that you will have access to these people--use them! It's what they signed up for!
• Stay focused. It's so easy to get sidetracked in college! There are a million things to do besides anything that has to do with your future goals. Keep your eye on the prize and work for it. You will always have the opportunity to make friends and go out; you will not always have the opportunity to get a great education and take the amazing classes you have access to.
• Take the time to stay in love with your major. Getting to hear the concert at my alma mater made me remember how much I love music. When I was in college, it always felt like music was a chore: one more concert that takes my evening away, one more solo piece to learn on top of everything else I have to do, one more set of instrument fingerings to cram into my already full brain. I rarely felt as moved by music in college as I did the other night, listening to those two amazing professors. Take a step back every now and again and remember the reason you wanted to major in the subject you chose.

All of this might sound a little sappy, but seriously, take advantage of where you are. I've been out of college for 18 months and can't tell you how much I'd change if I got to do it over again. I had a great college experience, don't get me wrong, but there is so much that I still want to learn and had the chance to learn--and didn't!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Grade School Government: Shutdown Edition

There has been so much press and media coverage about the federal government shutdown that, in all honesty, I was going to ignore it and let everyone else blog about it. But then it happened and it looks like it's here to stay for a while, so that's my cue to weigh in. :-)

The Reality of the Situation in Plain English

• The name of the healthcare plan is The Affordable Care Act (ACA); not Obamacare.
• The ACA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2009. 
• The ACA is not unconstitutional. It was a bill, then it went through the process that bills have to go through to become laws, then it became a law. It's just like any other law.
• A lot of people don't like certain laws. The laws are still laws, regardless of how popular they are (like how much we have to pay in federal taxes--not a lot people love it, but we still do it).
• A small faction of House Republicans is demanding that President Obama change the law that was passed through their part of Congress four years ago. 
• President Obama is not required to change the ACA by any stretch of the imagination. It's not really his problem. Think about it: if a bunch of people didn't like our tax laws, it would be completely inappropriate to call the President and demand that he negotiate with them. It's not his problem. That's not his job description.
• House Republicans are holding the American people and the American economy hostage by allowing--no, demanding--a federal government shutdown.
• Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being asked to stay home without pay.
• Our Congressmen and Congresswomen still get their paychecks, in-house doctor, and private post office. They lost their shoe shiner, barber, and elevator attendant due to the shutdown. My heart goes out to them while they actually have to shine their own shoes, go to a public barber, and push their own elevator buttons. Must be hard.
• This shutdown is costing our country $300M every day it's in effect.

So what it all boils down to is this: 

Grade school Congressmen: "Do it our way or we're taking our toys and going home."

President: "What are you talking about?"

Grade school Congressmen: "It's our way or the highway!"

President: "Um...nope, that's not quite how that works."

Grade school Congressmen: "You negotiate with terrorists!"

And then the government shut down.

To the unhappy House Republicans: You lost one. The law passed four years ago. Suck it up. Oh, and do the jobs you were elected to do instead of making hundreds of thousands of your constituents lose money over your pissing match.

To the unhappy Washington Democrats: Stop being jerks about all of this. For those of us paying attention, we know. It's not you, it's them. Fine. Just stop being so horribly rude to each other. You're not endearing yourselves to anyone.

To the extremely unhappy extreme right-wing of this country: Will you please just take a step back for a minute and look at all of this from an objective perspective? From what I understand, you think that having a "federally run healthcare system" is bad. You don't like big government. Okay, fine. But here's where your system doesn't work: unemployed poor people can't afford healthcare. Unless you're saying, "Well, if poor people (including kids) don't have healthcare, they should have worked harder and gotten to where I am because, by God, if you work hard in America you can be anything, and if you didn't get there, tough luck," you can't be okay with leaving thousands of kids and disabled people without healthcare. And if you are saying that, you're delusional. I know that's how our country worked for you, but that's not the case for every American and if you think it is, you need to go serve food at soup kitchens, help kids learn to read at poor schools, and go talk to people you see living on the streets. Then come back and tell me that we have equal opportunity.

To the extremely unhappy left-wing of this country: Stop acting like you know best and your "people" aren't doing anything wrong. Everyone in Washington is acting like spoiled kids, included the Democrats. Like I suggested for the right: take a step back. Instead of calling each other names and acting like jerks all the time, let's see if we can work together on a solution instead of just walking around saying "neener neener, their guys are going to blink first." That's not helpful and it's incredibly rude. Have some pride.

I would love to see a government in which its employees did not take the country's citizens hostage to gain a political win. I thought we had that. I was wrong. We, as citizens, need to step up and tell our government that what's going on is wrong. Call your Senators and Representatives. This is a link to the Senate page where you can find all of the Senators' phone numbers. This is a link to the corresponding House page. I'll be calling my Senators (Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul) and my Representative (Thomas Massie) today. Join me!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi