Shannon Snell: Blog 1 – This I believe…

Rewind to the spring of 2011.

I sat down one day, as I did almost every single day, to practice my saxophone, the instrument I once believed was going to shape my future. But that day, when I sat down in the small room to practice, I did so knowing there was a very good chance I was about to give it all up.

I wanted to have a career in music since the moment I played the saxophone for the first time back in seventh grade. I just got such a thrill. I remember thinking, “this is what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

When I arrived on campus in the fall of 2010 as part of the music education program, I slowly started to discover that this didn’t feel right at all. It wasn’t the dream world I imagined it would be. Should I change majors? The thought crossed my mind a few times, but I shrugged it off and muddled on through long, frustrated nights of practicing. If I just waited it out, I told myself, things would get better. This is what I wanted, after all.

But one day, the other saxophone majors and I got to listen to some professional saxophone players talk about what their lives are like. They got up in the morning, went to rehearsal, went home, maybe worked another part-time job, and practiced some more. I watched my peers’ eyes widen in delight.

That sounded like the perfect life to them. But it sounded like the opposite of the sort of life I wanted for myself. It was ironic because, in high school, our band director talked to us about what it would be like to play in a military band, and the experience he described had been similar. I remembered that talk, and how delighted I’d been at the idea of spending every day doing nothing but playing music.

That was the moment at which I decided I would switch out of the music major.

The idea of making a change so huge was foreign to me. I had wanted to study music for such a long time that I wondered if I’d still be the same person if I made the switch. Would I be giving up a part of me? Was I giving up?

I was inwardly terrified, but eventually took a deep breath, made a phone call or two, and suddenly I was enrolled in the College of Communications.

Since then, I’ve found that switching majors was the right decision to make. I write for the Daily Collegian. I’m excited by the amount of choices I have for career paths. I could go into government public relations, work for a record label, or even write for a professional newspaper.

Looking back on it, I understand why I was so scared. But college is a time for change. It’s a time for figuring out who you are and what you want out of life. I realized I hadn’t been open to change as I could have been, preferring the safety of what I’d already decided.

It’s not that I don’t believe in chasing your dreams and seeing them through. It’s really the opposite. I have simply come to understand that it’s okay if the dreams you want to pursue change.

I remember that one of my fellow saxophone majors – a senior – said once, “If you leave college the same person as you came, it will be money not well spent.”

Even if he didn’t know I was thinking of changing majors at the time, it was almost like he had been encouraging me to just go for it.

That’s why I believe in embracing change.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply