So this is it, wrapping up the last few weeks of another year in University. As crazy as this year has been, it's also been such an incredible learning experience! I've never been so sure of my desire to compose music in my life! My co-op placement showed me that this is exactly what I want to do as a living, and my composition classes show me how easy and wonderful it can be to put your ideas down for others to explore and experience!
This year has also been a great opportunity for me to grow in my faith, from attending faith studies, to joining a CCO group, and even connecting closer with people from my church and people that I share my faith with. I have met some absolutely wonderful people, some of which are driving me towards my faith. When I feel like I'm slowing down on my journey, they give me a push in the right direction and send me down the right road all over again!
I've grown as a person, learning that its okay to say no, it's okay to fail at things, it's okay to stumble and that it won't be the end of the world. If something happens and I don't do something
perfectly the world will not collapse and its likely that no one will even remember. I've learned that I don't have to let people walk all over me, even if they're adults. I can stand up for myself and demand to be treated properly. I've learned that not everyone who walks into your life is setting out to hurt me and if I just open up a little bit, I can develop stronger friendships than I've ever had.
I've learned that I am beautiful. I may not be perfect, or super fit, my hair is huge and crazy, and I still get acne, but I am beautiful. I love the way I look and even though I want to be healthier, I want to do it for me, and not for others. If nothing about me changes, I will be happy too, because this is who I am and God loves me this way! I love my crazy hair, and my oily skin will make me less likely to have wrinkles when I'm older. I'm not super fit but that just shows that I have a life outside a gym. I am me. I am wonderful!
I've learned that life is short, people can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye and some of them are taken away much sooner than they expected. So live life. Don't be stupid and be an idiot about it, but take the time, enjoy the small things, leave early when driving to give yourself time to stop the car if something catches your eye. If you see a sunset, take the time and enjoy it. Be daring and fight your fears and try something new, you'll be amazed what you can conquer when you set your mind on a goal.
Plan for multiple futures. Plan something simple, something realistic, something daring, and some big dream that's never going to happen, but plan them like that will be your reality starting tomorrow. For me I planned what I will do if I finish with a Bmus degree, I planned for graduate studies, I planned on if I moved elsewhere in Canada, planned for a move to another country, planned on if I stay in my town the rest of my life. I planned on my next degree if I choose to do one. I've planned what car I should get next and how much it would cost approx and started saving for it. I've planned most of my life depending on what happens along the way! The thing is its just a loose plan, it's going to change or not happen at all, but at least I'm striving towards something!
Life is so wonderful and we all need to rely on God and on ourselves for our happiness, stop looking to objects, and other people or anything that can be taken away from you. Stay true to the things that will always be with you no matter what!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Fitness Motivation
Good morning bloggers,
So I don't know about most people, but I find great physical motivation from watching people work out, or seeing people with well built bodies. As a girl, I know a lot of other women who look at female fitness trainers and body builders, and they look to these ladies as motivation to workout. Call me weird, but I don't work that way.
I actually find it more motivating to look at male weight-lifters and watching them workout.
Well I stumbled across gold two nights ago when I stumbled across Team Grenade. Former military men who use military type training and exercise to get ripped.
If anyone knows me, they'll understand why I just had to watch this video, and as anyone who has ever worked out with me can vouch for, it was certainly the motivation for me.
Here's the video that I stumbled across: Team Grenade: Operation Desert Dawn
If you want to check out his channel, his name is Jamie Alderton, Click Here to go check his channel out!
I wasn't the only one to think his videos were motivational, I showed a few people in the Lounge on campus, the place all my other musician classmates hang out, and for an hour straight 4 of us watched these videos in amazement.
I've felt pretty unstoppable the past few days and my workouts have been intense and so well worth it. Even when I've come home late, I've done workouts that have gone past midnight, and to be honest, I feel incredible. I just have to keep it going and not stop!
So I don't know about most people, but I find great physical motivation from watching people work out, or seeing people with well built bodies. As a girl, I know a lot of other women who look at female fitness trainers and body builders, and they look to these ladies as motivation to workout. Call me weird, but I don't work that way.
I actually find it more motivating to look at male weight-lifters and watching them workout.
Well I stumbled across gold two nights ago when I stumbled across Team Grenade. Former military men who use military type training and exercise to get ripped.
If anyone knows me, they'll understand why I just had to watch this video, and as anyone who has ever worked out with me can vouch for, it was certainly the motivation for me.
Here's the video that I stumbled across: Team Grenade: Operation Desert Dawn
There's one man from the team that I thought looked like someone I know, which made the whole thing just a little bit funnier! So I decided to look this guy up and found out he's a personal trainer and has his own youtube channel with many workout videos and meals and such. I'll probably be keeping up with this guy for a while and using it as my motivation for a bit.
If you want to check out his channel, his name is Jamie Alderton, Click Here to go check his channel out!
I wasn't the only one to think his videos were motivational, I showed a few people in the Lounge on campus, the place all my other musician classmates hang out, and for an hour straight 4 of us watched these videos in amazement.
I've felt pretty unstoppable the past few days and my workouts have been intense and so well worth it. Even when I've come home late, I've done workouts that have gone past midnight, and to be honest, I feel incredible. I just have to keep it going and not stop!
Watch out world!
- Tay
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The Life of Composition
Isn't life beautiful?
Yes while many of you will read that and thing "oh great another person who is on cloud 9 and thinks everything is peachy" well it's not entirely true. I know there's a lot of crap that goes on in a person's life, but I also know that while things are pretty tough for me right now, I'm also in the best place I've ever been my whole life.
While I can look at my life and think, there's a million things that I want to change about myself, and I'm no where near the person I want to be, and there's a million things that I'm running around and trying to keep up with, I also know that where I am right now is perfectly amazing.
To sum up things quickly, I'm in the winter term of my 3rd year of University in music. I chose this semester to fill my life with nothing but classes that I need to compose for, while I was worried that this would be a stupid mistake because I would have to be coming up with new material constantly every day and would be working non-stop I've come to realize that this is the best thing I've ever done.
School work feels like it's never ending, but at the same time I feel like for once I want and am capable of staying on top of my school work. I haven't fallen behind, I haven't felt the panic of trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. Yes, a few assignments were left until the last minute and I knew I would have to stay up all night to finish them, they still got done and they were done well.
This year is also the year that I'm getting the highest marks that I've gotten in all my years of University and it feels wonderful! Not a day goes by where I'm not putting my pencil to a piece of staff paper and writing music and it's one of the greatest feelings ever. I was concerned that by doing all these composition courses at once that I would discover that I didn't like spending all my time on it, but instead I've come to realize that this is exactly where I want to be in life. This is exactly what I want to be doing. Everything that I'm doing this term; composing, arranging, working as a copyist, this is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life.
What a beautiful blessing to have something embed so deeply into your heart that you know this is what you want to do, no more wandering around aimlessly, this is it. End of story.
I truly wish this feeling upon everyone, that they discover what it is that they are meant to do. It's a beautiful feeling.
God Bless!
- Tay
Yes while many of you will read that and thing "oh great another person who is on cloud 9 and thinks everything is peachy" well it's not entirely true. I know there's a lot of crap that goes on in a person's life, but I also know that while things are pretty tough for me right now, I'm also in the best place I've ever been my whole life.
While I can look at my life and think, there's a million things that I want to change about myself, and I'm no where near the person I want to be, and there's a million things that I'm running around and trying to keep up with, I also know that where I am right now is perfectly amazing.
To sum up things quickly, I'm in the winter term of my 3rd year of University in music. I chose this semester to fill my life with nothing but classes that I need to compose for, while I was worried that this would be a stupid mistake because I would have to be coming up with new material constantly every day and would be working non-stop I've come to realize that this is the best thing I've ever done.
School work feels like it's never ending, but at the same time I feel like for once I want and am capable of staying on top of my school work. I haven't fallen behind, I haven't felt the panic of trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. Yes, a few assignments were left until the last minute and I knew I would have to stay up all night to finish them, they still got done and they were done well.
This year is also the year that I'm getting the highest marks that I've gotten in all my years of University and it feels wonderful! Not a day goes by where I'm not putting my pencil to a piece of staff paper and writing music and it's one of the greatest feelings ever. I was concerned that by doing all these composition courses at once that I would discover that I didn't like spending all my time on it, but instead I've come to realize that this is exactly where I want to be in life. This is exactly what I want to be doing. Everything that I'm doing this term; composing, arranging, working as a copyist, this is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life.
What a beautiful blessing to have something embed so deeply into your heart that you know this is what you want to do, no more wandering around aimlessly, this is it. End of story.
I truly wish this feeling upon everyone, that they discover what it is that they are meant to do. It's a beautiful feeling.
God Bless!
- Tay
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Oboe of a Different Kind
So as I'm sure some people know, I'm an oboist, which means I play the oboe. It's a classical instrument that plays a lot of baroque music. Not very popular today outside of accompaniment in orchestras now a days. Also, if you choose to play a piece meant for oboe you're pretty much guaranteed to be playing it with piano accompaniment.
Well it's time for something new. I had some great chats with some of my classmates tonight while we were all put at the bar, because where else would musicians hang out?
The idea of jazz oboe came up and it seems pretty interesting, a lot of my classmates seem pretty interested in hearing it and want me to give it a try, even willing to help me get better at it.
The second awesome idea was that I wanted to play something that had accompaniment other than piano, so even if that meant doing a few oboe studies/duets and having a guitarist playing the other part. Lucky me, I found someone who is willing to give it a shot. I'm looking forward to trying something new in that way. Oboe and guitar should be a pretty combination.
It's time to branch out from my comfortable circle of music and get more passionate about playing more often and trying new and more interesting styles.
I'm really looking forward to this. Should be good.
- Tay
Well it's time for something new. I had some great chats with some of my classmates tonight while we were all put at the bar, because where else would musicians hang out?
The idea of jazz oboe came up and it seems pretty interesting, a lot of my classmates seem pretty interested in hearing it and want me to give it a try, even willing to help me get better at it.
The second awesome idea was that I wanted to play something that had accompaniment other than piano, so even if that meant doing a few oboe studies/duets and having a guitarist playing the other part. Lucky me, I found someone who is willing to give it a shot. I'm looking forward to trying something new in that way. Oboe and guitar should be a pretty combination.
It's time to branch out from my comfortable circle of music and get more passionate about playing more often and trying new and more interesting styles.
I'm really looking forward to this. Should be good.
- Tay
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Written Word
It's amazing how often people under estimate the power of the written word, and I do mean written as opposed to typed or spoken/recorded. There's something much more intimate and freeing about something written down. There is power in words.
Durning my faith study the other day I was discussing with my leader how, I write everything down in journals, have for a long time. We began discussing the darker years of my life, and how I have very thing written down in there and still have it to this day. The thought came that I should get the books blessed so that anything dark that I was involved in would become harmless and that it wouldn't have the possibility of something that would linger over my head.
On a brighter note, I've decided to tackle a new project, one that I am keeping very secret but I am extremely excited for. It's a personal project that will involve me writing a lot of things down in one location for future reference. It sounds both incredibly boring and creepy when I say it that way, but it's going to be something magnificent if everything works out to plan.
I guess I'm slowly trying to get away from blogging and typing things up. It's certainly a lot easier to type things up, but there's something enjoyable about being able to look back on all the things that I have written down from years ago. It's quite the gift.
-Tay
Durning my faith study the other day I was discussing with my leader how, I write everything down in journals, have for a long time. We began discussing the darker years of my life, and how I have very thing written down in there and still have it to this day. The thought came that I should get the books blessed so that anything dark that I was involved in would become harmless and that it wouldn't have the possibility of something that would linger over my head.
On a brighter note, I've decided to tackle a new project, one that I am keeping very secret but I am extremely excited for. It's a personal project that will involve me writing a lot of things down in one location for future reference. It sounds both incredibly boring and creepy when I say it that way, but it's going to be something magnificent if everything works out to plan.
I guess I'm slowly trying to get away from blogging and typing things up. It's certainly a lot easier to type things up, but there's something enjoyable about being able to look back on all the things that I have written down from years ago. It's quite the gift.
-Tay
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Television Addiction
I'm sure everyone else has ha those moments where you get really into a tv show and so all you do is watch every single episode in rapid succession? Yup, I'm there.
In the past 3 weeks I've made it to season 5 of 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think I like the strong female role model who isn't helpless an defenseless. She's not a damsel in distress and she doesn't have to wait for a guy to come and save her, she can do it all on her own.
Plus, while I never thought about it the first time around (because I never thought it needed saying) the vampires are portrayed as the bad guys. As they should be. Vampires are evil creatures who have no soul, they burst into flames if the sun hits them, and they aren't lovey dovey. They are demons.
Granted in the show there are exceptions, but they have really valid and plausible explanations! Not saying I condone them, but it's just a little better than "I love you" vampires who sparkle.
There's also the whole thing about James Marster's character of Spike, who has so many hilarious lines. I really liked Angel when I started re-watching the show, but Spike is by far the funniest character. It's hard to watch the episodes late at night and not burst out laughing.
Things are getting a little funny though, I think it's odd that in a show that's from the 90s there would be such a strong homosexual message considering how taboo it would have been for the time. That's just starting up now and it's a little weird. Okay, a lot weird. Leave it to Joss to push the envelope of the time.
In the past 3 weeks I've made it to season 5 of 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think I like the strong female role model who isn't helpless an defenseless. She's not a damsel in distress and she doesn't have to wait for a guy to come and save her, she can do it all on her own.
Plus, while I never thought about it the first time around (because I never thought it needed saying) the vampires are portrayed as the bad guys. As they should be. Vampires are evil creatures who have no soul, they burst into flames if the sun hits them, and they aren't lovey dovey. They are demons.
Granted in the show there are exceptions, but they have really valid and plausible explanations! Not saying I condone them, but it's just a little better than "I love you" vampires who sparkle.
There's also the whole thing about James Marster's character of Spike, who has so many hilarious lines. I really liked Angel when I started re-watching the show, but Spike is by far the funniest character. It's hard to watch the episodes late at night and not burst out laughing.
Things are getting a little funny though, I think it's odd that in a show that's from the 90s there would be such a strong homosexual message considering how taboo it would have been for the time. That's just starting up now and it's a little weird. Okay, a lot weird. Leave it to Joss to push the envelope of the time.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Lent
The season of Lent is upon us once again, and it is that time of year where we put away foolish things and strive to become closer to Jesus.
All my life I've tried to do something drastic and very difficult for lent, from giving up meat (the one food group I actually like), to giving up television (which is ALWAYS on in the background, to the hardest one last year, I gave up Facebook. I realized the amount of time I wasted on Facebook just took away from my productivity, and made me generally miserable. It was an addiction that I needed to break.
While most years I try to do something different, I really think that leaving Facebook for 40 days is the most challenging thing I've ever done for lent, and I've decided that I'm going to take another running stab at it.
After Easter of last year, it was amazing how free I felt from my addiction to browsing on Facebook. I've come to the realization that it is just as bad now as it was this time last year, and that somehow I had become dependent on it once again.
It was a real learning experience for me and so I believe that it is time for me to do this challenge for a second year in a row.
As well, I want to make a promise myself to use my free time to try and at least twice a week, spend some time in discernment of what God has planned for my life. Perhaps spend more time in Adoration.
This is an opportunity to get closer to God and to take a step away from all the things I've been wasting my time with.
This should be a fun journey.
-Tay
All my life I've tried to do something drastic and very difficult for lent, from giving up meat (the one food group I actually like), to giving up television (which is ALWAYS on in the background, to the hardest one last year, I gave up Facebook. I realized the amount of time I wasted on Facebook just took away from my productivity, and made me generally miserable. It was an addiction that I needed to break.
While most years I try to do something different, I really think that leaving Facebook for 40 days is the most challenging thing I've ever done for lent, and I've decided that I'm going to take another running stab at it.
After Easter of last year, it was amazing how free I felt from my addiction to browsing on Facebook. I've come to the realization that it is just as bad now as it was this time last year, and that somehow I had become dependent on it once again.
It was a real learning experience for me and so I believe that it is time for me to do this challenge for a second year in a row.
As well, I want to make a promise myself to use my free time to try and at least twice a week, spend some time in discernment of what God has planned for my life. Perhaps spend more time in Adoration.
This is an opportunity to get closer to God and to take a step away from all the things I've been wasting my time with.
This should be a fun journey.
-Tay
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