While I was talking to my old friend from high school in New Jersey, somehow this topic came up and I thought it would a interesting topic to explore.
My friend brought up the fact that I seem to be meeting so many different people in my department. He is a facebook stalker! Hehe, just kidding! But he would sometimes come see the most recent album and he noticed how many people are in my pictures and all the comments I got with them (<3 comments and friends!) Then we went on talking about how I’ll be going to different places over the summer and he was noticing how many different kind of friends I have, some from China, Taiwan, and Japan. At first I thought that it’s only because the department is full of people of different ethnicity, but then this one comment came up…he didn’t know that many people in his department as well as I do.
I tend to not notice what is outside of my own department. But when I hangout with my friend Vicky, who is a Health Science major, would sometimes talk about how she knows people in her department but never get to know others enough to go out together outside of school. The music department seems to be very different. I noticed it too when I was taking General Education classes how the friendship just lasts for one semester and everyone just doesn’t contact each other anymore. Or most times, I never even get to meet anyone in my class and just go through the whole semester not meeting anyone.
In the music building, I am able to meet so many different people, those who sing, play a woodwind/brass/string/percussion instrument(s). It’s maybe because we are together almost on a daily bases for years if we entered college in the same year. And not only that, we have classes that are required for performance majors to join chamber groups, like duo, trio, quartet & quintet. And from that, we develop friendship and partnerships from those groups. And each semester the groupings would change and we get to meet new people and start the process over again. And through theory & history classes, people move together through classes, which makes people more comfortable in talking to familiar faces and fellow students.
There are groupies, like band, orchestra & percussion…but there’s no question to why that happens…because of the different major ensembles and instrument families, we tend to hang out with one group more than the other. But this semester, I’ve opened up to becoming friends with many people. So far I have friends from choir, and a few instrumentalists that play woodwind & brass instruments, and it’s still slowly expanding. I know people who play guitar, saxophone, percussion, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, bass, viola, cello, flute, horn, trombone and multiple singers.
It’s hard to make it clear about how it’s different, but I tried my best. :]
that really makes a lot of sense, especially when you write about how different people meet each other again and again via the different ensembles, theory classes and all. it’s a very special department for sure.