the beginning of the end

Today is the first day of my last semester of grad. school.  Soon after graduation, I'll (hopefully) be leaving for the Peace Corps.

I'll be completely honest and tell you that I have a bit of anxiety starting again today.  I tend to be a bit of a workaholic and this is a big semester between my lecture recital (in less than a month!), the conducting competition at ACDA in March, and my oral exams (EEEEK!).  But... it's just school, right?  It's all a means to an end.  The degree is my key to moving on to the next step.  And these events lead to the graduation.

Over the summer I watched the movie Little Ashes.  Have you seen it?  Robert Pattison (of Twilight fame) plays Salador Dalí.  It's quite good, and there's one quote I'm trying to make my mantra:

"If I'm going to be anything more than average, if anyone's going to remember me, then I need to go further in everything: in art, in life, in everything they think is real: morality, immorality, good, bad, I, we, have to smash that to pieces, we have to go beyond that, we have to be brave. no limit."

I want to go beyond.  I want to be brave.  No limits it is!