Tomorrow the week begins again, so today – after 3 days of positively enjoying myself, I forced myself to push on with the fun and frolic, but ensure I got my reading in. Tomorrow’s lectures: Global Governance and Jurisprudence are both very theoretical subjects, taught incredibly well, and with very reflective reading. My brain has to process and form opinions – which seem to come from the heart rather than the brain – about every text I’m reading, because based on last week, if I don’t do that, I will not have anything to contribute to the class. More critically, I feel, that if I don’t develop the art of gaining perspective and voicing it – on the first instance, it’s very difficult to have somebody challenge that view. For the time would have passed and we would have moved onto something else. Allowing people to supplement, or present a contrarian opinion to one I hold is what I want to take away from my classes, and if I’ve not read – and thought about it, it’s tough for me to do that.
So of course I went to try out for Chapel Choir today, and am pleased to inform you I will now be singing on Sundays at the St Edmund’s College Chapel, Choir group permitting. I am an untrained singer, so I sing in the bathroom and quietly when I play my guitar – so what I would love is to gain confidence by singing in a group, improve upon my skills by learning to sing at sight, and more importantly – serve. I would love to continue with this as much as is possible. This and Symphony Chorus, together, I think, will really complement the Music Theory I’m studying well, and hopefully improve my own understanding of music. The Chapel Music Director was very kind about the notes I sang that were terribly off, and she really encouraged me to project, which in her words, would fill the Chapel with my voice, and oof – did that bring me happiness. It made me sound a lot better than I am, and I loved it.
Then I went and played field hockey. About ten years after I had last picked up a stick competitively, I played. I slipped a couple of times, added very little value to my team offensively and got tired quick, made one save I think (I’m taking credit). With seven outfield players and no goalkeeper, we lost 1:7 to Emmanuel (I played for Selwyn/Trinity Hall) but I was a happy fifth-grader once more – the kid who learned the sport. I was so happy throughout, and my parents saw me beaming when we spoke in the evening. As did a couple of friends.
After which I began reading once more. Reading should really have more synonyms, and it is not at all dull; which I worry my descriptions of it will make. So I’ll stop this post here – and talk to you tomorrow, to tell you how wonderful reading was, and can be.
Tejas Rao 