Audition Season

It's the height of audition season here at the University of Michigan and every Friday the school of music is crawling with hundreds of well-dressed, naïve-looking, perpetually lost people. Last week my bishop put some of my friends and me in contact with an LDS girl who auditioned for the same program I'm doing (Doctor of Musical Arts [DMA] in vocal performance), so I spent some time with her over a couple of days talking her through the audition process, answering her questions about the program, and showing her a couple of places around town.

All of this got me reminiscing about my audition here last year and my decision to come here. My audition was on February 2 - I remember because the first thing I said at my audition as I walked out on stage was "Happy Groundhog Day!" (That got the judge's collective attention - I saw about 6 heads that had been buried in notebooks whip up simultaneously.) The audition went well, but I didn't exactly fall in love with the place (especially the weather - I think they deliberately put the auditions in February to weed out the weaklings who can't handle the cold). But they made me an offer I couldn't refuse and so here I am today.

The first couple of months here were pretty rough for me - I felt like I was in the wrong program at the wrong place. But that feeling passed after a while, and now I feel like I'm in just the right spot for me. The program's going well for me, I have a cool role in the opera (Postcard from Morocco, March 21 & 23 if you're interested), and I really love the town of Ann Arbor. But most of all, I love my friends from church here. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love my ward. Everyone is so wonderful in so many different ways and people plan fun gathering and activities all the time. I never get lonely or bored because there's always people to hang out with. A part of me feels like I needed to come to school here because I needed to be in this ward. So to all you Hill Streeters out there reading this, I want you to know I love yer guts. Thanks for being awesome friends.

(Whoa - this post took a really syrupy turn at the end. I didn't see that one coming.)