Words of Wisdom From Severine Neff

Today, I went to talk to a professor about my performance in her class. I had not been doing as well as I know I could have been, and because I often ended up coming to class late or turning in homework late for various reasons, I wanted to apologize. I went to her office and explained there had been some complicated things happening this semester and that she really was one of my favorite professors (I've even mentioned her in my blog before!)

She seemed surprised, and hadn't recognized any of the problems I was apologizing for; in fact she thought I was looking a lot better than the beginning of the semester when I looked exhausted and worn out every day! She said that it was clear that I understood the material and that's what she cared about most. She said things happen in life, and you just go on, it's nothing to worry about. As you get older you just get better at handling them... or not even, you just learn to handle them and life goes on. Then she said something very powerful - I'll do my best to quote: "Things in life often don't make sense... that's why we study music theory, because it can't be explained." This was so powerful to hear from someone who I think is so incredibly intelligent about music, and I just had to write about it so that it wouldn't be forgotten.