I'm going to preface this by saying I wrote it without looking back and haven't re-read it. It's, like an entry from Sept., a streamline of thought that I had to express and get out of me. I can't express how estranged I feel from myself right now. I hope you, whoever you are (whomever??), can understand for me. Thanks.
I feel like my time here has run out. I'm just so lost, and never really happy with this place. I don't know if it's me or not, and that's the biggest problem. I'm at a school with such a great talent pool (in my opinion, at least) and I can't bring myself to be happy to be here. I feel like I'm letting myself fail so that I can be forced to leave. Is it because I can't accept that I don't want to be here anymore? I honestly can't even tell. I just feel like there are one or two singular things making me stay, but so much of me seems to want to leave. So much of me wants to be happy, but at the same time I feel like I can't leave. I feel like going back to Dallas, transferring to UNT or UTD or something would be just as wrong because I'm afraid of going back. I am afraid that if I go back I won't ever leave, I'll just stay and get stuck in the black hole of my home. And I know I can't go to another school like OCU, or a better one. I can't even afford to go here but my parents put themselves through so much so that I can go here, and I'm not even fucking happy. And even though I know they're suffering financially for me to get the education I wanted, I let myself throw it away, and I let myself throw money away, pretending that since most other peers here are wealthier than I that I am at their level. And I'm afraid to leave because of the people that I got to come here. When I came here I was so happy. I was so excited to learn new things and to meet people and that got friends from Creekview (my high school) to come here also. I feel like if I leave I'm telling them that my initial happiness was a total lie. I just don't know what to do, I loved my first year here so much, and learned a lot, but I just feel like this entire semester has been pointless, and I can't say there's been a moment where I wasn't hating something about this place. Hate is a strong word and I've had it thrown at me a lot but I don't mind throwing it back, especially when it comes to a toxic, suffocating environment like this. Do I make myself stay, hoping that somehow next semester will be different? I don't have the strength to make it different, and I really don't see this place changing for
me ever. They'll just use me, and when I do achieve success, hail themselves as the creators of it. Use me as the reason they are great. The fact that I initially only wanted to come here because some blonde chick named Kristin Chenoweth went here sickens me. My naivete at the time sickens me. Coming here did teach me one thing, at least, and that is that people who become Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O'Hara, Linda Twine, they don't become who they are because of OCU. Not at all. They become who they are because they were always that person.
If one person that has abandoned me would just reach out, genuinely, for one fucking second I would stay. Not just say "hi" in passing because they're obligated to because we once understood each other and were close friends. But because they fucking cared, and didn't care what others said about their friendship with me.
one of the reasons I keep telling myself not to leave is because of Dr. Knight. I have learned a lot from studying with him. I can still learn some, I'm sure. but I just don't want to write what I don't want to write. I can't bring myself to write this music that exists only because I'm supposed to write it. Maybe one day I'll want to write a god damned string quartet, maybe one day I'll actually like the idea of composing a brass quintet, but today, I want to write for myself, and I can't even do that here it feels like. The second I was told to stop brining in vocal music because we have to focus on other things was the second I knew I couldn't be inspired anymore. I feel so much in me, but I see it dwindling from the haggard corosion of this place. I feel suffocated by what I have to do, because it "provides a solid classical foundation that will lead me into whatever path I want to follow" [musically]. No. I don't believe in that anymore. Maybe it's because I already had this coming in, maybe I'm just discouraging myself for the mistakes I've made. I should have taken Music Theory 3 my first semester. I was ready to jump to that level, and I was ready to not even take Piano at all the second I got here. But I let myself and it has killed me. I'm not happy here, but I can't leave. I'm afraid to give up on this place just because I'm not happy. Maybe it's because I once was so inspired and fulfilled by this place. But even then I could see the glass start to crack (metaphorically). Maybe it's because my car had a lot less dents and scratches on it before I came here, also.
I'm done venting. I don't know what I'll do. Do you want to give me your advice?