So what’s it like being in music school in this new environment? Well, it’s weird. It’s very different. It’s exciting. It’s terrifying.
It’s an adjustment.
Being in a global pandemic is something that I never would have thought I would experience in my lifetime. Being in music school makes it even more terrifying because music students rely on face-to-face interaction to be successful in their studies. Over the summer I was very nervous to find out if I would be going back to campus in the fall or not. Luckily, my school decided that they would reopen safely with many precautions in place.
Going to school on the first day of classes there were many emotions running through my head. I was excited to be back, but totally terrified about what classes were going to be like. I walked into my first class, which was one of my ensembles called AME (American Music Ensemble). I walked into the rehearsal room where I had been many times before, but there were only 12 chairs in the room instead of the 20 or so chairs that are normally in there. There was a plexiglass barrier for the professor. My fellow classmates were all wearing masks. I made my way over to my assigned seat and waited for rehearsal to start. My professor asked how we were doing and started talking about this new environment that we are in. He said, “It’s an adjustment. It’s just something that we will have to get used to. I’d take this over being all online any day.” His words were very comforting. It was just the right thing that we needed to hear. Yes, this whole thing is weird, but we’ll get used to it. We’re humans, we adapt to things all the time. And like my professor said, I will take this hybrid learning environment over sitting behind a computer screen for an entire semester any day.
I’ve just finished the first couple weeks of classes, and I feel pretty good so far. I’ve gotten used to wearing a mask all day in 90 degree weather, which has made me realize that I can in fact sweat even more than I previously thought I could in South Florida in September. Most of my music classes are fully in-person, which I am very happy about. My other classes are either fully online or hybrid, where I’ll go to class one day and be online the other day.
Luckily, in AME (the class I mentioned earlier), we are able to all play together socially distanced in a room at the same time. I missed playing with my classmates last semester when we went online, so I’m so glad that I can safely play with them again this semester. One thing I do miss is being able to go to the practice room with my friends and just jam out in a small practice room for an hour or so. We now have assigned practice rooms where only one person can be in the room at a time, so obviously the close-quarters jam sessions are on hold for now.
Hopefully, sometime in the near future I will be able to have those jam sessions, hug my friends, and sing with my buddies without having a piece of fabric over my face, but for now I’m just trying to make the most of it and enjoy every moment I can studying what I love. What else can we do, right?
Ali Murphy is a junior in the Contemporary Program at The University of Miami.