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Re: Big news! 

By: micro in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (2)
Sun, 28 Feb 21 5:39 PM | 32 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 13340 of 60008
(This msg. is a reply to 13312 by Decomposed)
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GM De!

Wonderful review of the "process" between father and son regarding the importance and life consequences of choices..

That was all true.. However, I understand Joey's liking Music to some degree but I never was one who could sing.

Music is something that will stay with you al the rest of your life if you are passionate about it and it is part of you..
I know because I Music was one of three majors I had in High School. Yep,. three. English and Science were the other two. I play instruments. Woodwinds. Saxophones, clarinets. I also leared to write all the football halftime shows for the 150 member marching band at my high school along with my best friend...

Started up a JAZZ band and also a SWING band and played at local area ballrooms and dance floors on weekends..

I specialize in ALTO Sax , Tenor Sax, and Clariniet. Not Bass Clarinet.. I also play piano.

I have a very nice professioanl saxophone here in my office I play occasionally just for fun and to remember the key work and shortcuts for some notes. SO I still play on rare occasions for the love of playing.

From a practical standpoint, unless one is going to use that talent and be able to translate it into commercial television or have thousands of people come here you at concerts every week and you sell music albums, you will not make the kind of income professionally degreed people in business can make.. You pointed this out and Joey understood it.

I would still encourage him to keep his love of song and singing.. My daughters have and one was an operatic Soprana singing arias at the University of Wittenberg and taveled to Europe and sang in five countries and was at Ground Zero singing there and the governor of New Jersey asked them if they would come over and sing for them, and they did. I have a hat from ground zero weeks after that happened..

But at my age and still enjying blowing my horns and clarinets and enjoying the times I do it, is priceless.

I play in my church occasioanlly as well.

I hope your son will continue his love of singing and music. I wonder if he could minor in that at school?? Or would time be a problematic factor...

Anyway, glad to hear Joey still has a passion for music... I hope he keeps that for Life.....
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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Big news!
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Sat, 27 Feb 21 11:33 PM 		Msg. 13312 of 60008

micro:

Re: “where he wants to further his knowledge and future career path”Virginia has a program called "Gov School" that it awards to top high school students. It provides an all-expenses-paid month at a Virginia college, with intense study of a single discipline, with 40 or 50 similarly focused students. It is, more or less, a boot camp for talented kids. Dozens of topics are available: Art, Engineering, Math, Journalism, Computers, Piano, Wind instruments, Stringed Instruments, etc.) and you must earn your slot. Only a few students in the state are chosen for each field.

In 2016, Joey auditioned for the Gov School choir program and was selected. He went to Radford University in June of that year and had the time of his life.

When it was over, as we drove him home, he cautiously broached the subject of being a music major. He knew that I considered being a music major to be a waste of money, but he made his case. I told him that as expensive as college is, it has to be viewed from the business perspective. If the lifetime income benefit a student derives doesn't at least offset the $200,000 approximate cost of college, parents should not be expected to bankroll it. I told him that he was welcome to apply for a student loan from the government and get himself a music degree that way. He was also welcome to be a double major, with one practical major that would land him a good job and the other being for fun or personal enrichment. He didn't like that suggestion. He said that music majors generally have to attend college for 5 years, and that if he was going to be a double major while trying to graduate in 4 years, he probably wouldn't be able to focus on music the way he'd want. Toward the end of the discussion, he asked me how much of a music major I would be willing to cover. I told him $2,000. LOL, that ended that discussion and he sulked - but only for a little while.

A few weeks later, I told him that if he could honestly tell me that he was passionate about a career in music - that, for instance, his dream was to write Broadway musicals... then I WOULD pay for him to get a music degree. I believe in my son. If what he wants more than anything is to be a musician or composer, I think he could be a successful one. As we all know, successful musicians can make serious money. But I wouldn't pay for his degree if his plan is to graduate and become a music teacher. By then, Joey had already moved on. He told me that he didn't have that sort of passion for music - that, in fact, he would not be satisfied with music as his life. He described it as something he'd like to do, but not the only thing. I suggested that he get his college degree in something that will pay the bills while seeing if there IS a field he's passionate for, then go back to school once he's making a lot of money. "Study music THEN, if it's still what you want," I told him.

Obviously, Joey saw the light. His college emphases, and where we thought his major might be, flowed from music to choir to Japanese to linguistics to math (originally number theory, but now logic) to cognitive science to computer science (practical) to system's architecture (theory). I think he qualifies as a polymath, a person who is very good in many fields while perhaps not being the very best at any of them. That's okay. Because they think differently, polymaths are frequently the ones who make the world changing discoveries.

While this post began with my telling you of an argument Joey and I had, I do like it that of all the things he could have majored in, he settled on two that combine well and probably make him employable... assuming he ever gets out of school and starts looking for a job, anyway. That's a huge improvement over where he was five years ago, asking if I'd be okay with him going to college to study an art. When I think of all the brilliant and talented kids he's known who did just that, it makes me want to cringe. It also makes me feel so fortunate to have a son with a good head on his shoulders.

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