It has been a year since I graduated with my bachelors degree in music. I can't help but think of where I was a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, five years, six years...yes, I'm reflecting on my whole undergraduate experience. It seems odd to think that it was as far as seven years ago for me, since I still view 18 year old me the same as I see today me (though I realize they aren't the same person, they are in the same period of life to me). And odder still, I felt each year in college had an overarching theme to it. I don't know why I feel that is true, but when I reflect, that's how I see it.
Year 1- Social Meltingpot
I always looked at my freshmen year as a culmination of how the different social philosophies all coexist in an environment such as college. Really, from when I first entered the dorms there was a sense of communism- no one of us had everything, but each one of us would have at least one thing we were more than willing to share. It was brilliant! One of us would have beer to share, one of us would have the plush room to chill in, one of us would have food to share around, one of us would have a car, one of us would have... you see my point? We would all share and create a community based on sharing what we had free of charge. Enter one of my favorite life philosophies- beer shall be paid in kind with more beer.
Then you had the socialist atmosphere of how a college is run in general. You had free lunches provided by the institution, as well as the student health clinic, library, wifi, access to the buildings on campus, the heirarchy of professors. It was a layered system, but it benefited us all in a different way. It provided us all with opportunities to move forward, which was exactly the way it is supposed to be.
Capitalism is of course looking for jobs and the traditional college spending sprees. Face it, college students have enough money to get what they want. How many college students do you see eating ramen while watching Netflix on their iPhone? Those things cost money, it's just that the average college student has chosen to allocate their money to "fun" things over essential things. So you find crappy jobs to pay your way through it all and hope for the best. Not to mention we all still have to eat and buy textbooks and other essentials.
Even mercantilism was represented by trading among other folks you don't know. You may have something you thought was great, or was necessary, for a time. Though it is still in just as good of condition as when you bought it, it is no longer of use to you. Such as textbooks or old technology. So instead of selling it to students who couldn't even afford it on used conditions, you may just trade for something they have you need of equal value. Textbooks I honestly say are the basis for this thought, and why not? Trading a Bio101 book for an Econ101 book is a pretty straight trade- both are about 150$, and useless after the class is over.
I will be honest- this was also the most memorable year of my life purely because it was all new. I was an adult, and I took care of myself and learned how to budget money, time, energy, and all manner of resources.
Year 2- Year of Silent Meditation
My first year I studied a lot of how western civilizations worked and progressed. My second year I started taking a lot of eastern philosophy classes- specifically in Zen philosophy and Daoism. I wanted to find some solace with myself all year. My friends from my first year seemed to have ignored me after the summer came and went, not to mention my roommate ran away and left me holding a bag I could never get someone to help with (I couldn't sell my contract, and nobody wanted to room with me). So I took classes on alien cultures to me, and I found that it fit me. I began mindful meditation, living in the moment. I started to curb my angst and anger into productive thoughts and advanced my studies farther than I thought I was ever able to do.
I began reading Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac as well as a few interpretations of The Legend of the Monkey King, several poetry books, and of course the Dao de ching. I participated in more cultural programs brought by the University and talking to people from the countries I was studying. I can't say I found religion, but I was able to find peace within myself. Everything that year had a tinge of the Orient, and I only was able to see it because I was forced into a moderate state of solitude.
Year 3- How Life Works
By year three I was once more living with friends, dating, and finding a lot out about life. From a social aspect it was your typical college experience. But my studies in Zoology had become very advanced and sophisticated. I began seeing the world in all its splendid beauty as a functioning organism. The chemistry of all animal interactions, the biophysics of their movement and actions, the intermixture the ecosystem provided.
But as stated, I also began to look into my life as a biological thing. As a human we are social creatures, we need social interaction, we have to have friends. This was also the year my grandmother passed away, which I had a hard time coping with. She and I were very close, and she was my first music teacher, and in fact the person who pushed me along with music the most. I feel I owe her a huge part of my life, but we must all die. And from all that I realized what the family unit meant to our social species- developementally, biologically, ecologically, it is a pretty resilient survival technique we've developed.
Love and lust are natural things- as are all emotions. Adding that to my mindful meditation I saw the year as a lesson on how things worked, how life is cultivated and executed and everything in between.
Year 4- How to Live Life
This was a year of a lot of change. I decided to do the stupid thing and move in with my girlfriend, a move I do not regret. The way everything in this year played out, I learned you should do what you love. The start of it was spent moving with my girlfriend and best friend from highschool. I decided that year that every week I should try something new- an idea from my girlfriend which I loved. I will admit that it usually boiled down to a new food or drink, but we all have to start somewhere. My boss also gave me more hours, which allowed me more luxuries and abilities. Unfortunately, I could only go so far with it, but I tried.
The year continued with a lot of drama, how to cope and work with it is always a difficult situation. More importantly, the thought of going into the medical field had less and less appeal to me the more I involved myself in music. Finally, by the end of the year, I cut a few ties, and changed the path of my life entirely to what I really loved, not what I just had an interest in.
Year 5- Chrysalis
I won't say a lot on this year. It was difficult for a lot of reasons. I lost my perspective on who I was and who I wanted to be and how I wanted to get to any of those things. There were rifts appearing in all areas of my life and I wasn't sure how to go about fixing them. Of course, being now 23 I was older than most of my peers and didn't feel like I belonged where I was in life or geographically. I realized that whatever the outcome of this year, I would become someone different.
Year 6- Aces Wild
Cards. Card games. For whatever that damn 52 card deck of bicycle cards became the common thread for all events in my final year. I won't get into a lot of the year specifically. But my favorite song of the year was about cards, I learned several games to help keep my sanity. I researched a lot of the origins of tarot and how the card deck became an entertainment staple. And with all the events of the year, I was late on the lesson of "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." C'est la vie.
