Please read and comment!! Willing to swap! Forum

[washingtondclaw]

Hey Everyone:

What do you guys think of this PS?? I'm willing to swap! Thanks!

After I sang a solo from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro during a sixth grade choir concert, I thought that I was bound to be an opera singer. I was encouraged to audition for the (Blank) Opera Studio, and when I was accepted it seemed clear to me that I would pursue a career in opera. My official solo debut came during my third European tour with (opera studio), when I sang the title role in Benjamin Britten’s opera Albert Herring in the timeless opera houses of Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. I was very fortunate to enjoy success at a young age, and I was convinced that I was destined for an illustrious life on the stage. When it came time to apply to college, there was no hesitation in my decision to pursue a major in vocal performance.
During my freshman year of college, I was wholly devoted to my development as a vocalist; I studied solfeggio, vocal technique, and sang in opera productions. I was blessed with the opportunity to learn from some of the finest vocalists in the world, including partaking in a master class with Plácido Domingo, my operatic idol, after which I felt even more inspired and dedicated to my vocal craft. I spent hours in practice rooms, learning arias, drilling vowel positions, and working on scales. Aside from aria lyrics, I rarely read. Except for my music harmony homework, I scarcely wrote. The academic world did not exist to me; my life was consumed by music, and any task that was not requisite to my operatic pursuits was irrelevant and uninteresting.
After a summer filled with performances and vocal workshops at (opera studio), I returned to (school) for my sophomore year just as enthused and passionate about opera as I had been the year before. However, shortly after classes began, I began to feel unexpectedly restless. I found myself envious of my classmates pursuing academic majors, and I craved intellectual challenge and invigoration. Initially, I classified my feelings as fleeting uncertainties, bound to dissolve as I reintegrated into the college environment and fully re-engaged with the music program. Nonetheless, as the school year progressed, my uncertainties lingered, and I was finally forced to seriously question whether a career in music was right for me. I decided that since I had put so much time and effort into music, I owed it to myself not to resign from the vocal performance program unless I was absolutely sure that some other field satisfied my restlessness and fulfilled my intellectual hunger. Accordingly, that spring semester, I took at total of 18 classes, or 81 credit units (a normal five class semester is 45 credit units), so that I could explore my other interests while remaining in the voice program. Through the law and public policy classes I took, I found the intellectual fulfillment that I so craved, and after experiencing that invigoration I knew that my pursuit of a life in music would never feel the same.
When I returned to (school) for my junior year, I left the voice program and switched my major to Ethics, History and Public Policy. I felt revitalized, and I dove into my studies with an aching excitement and zeal that I had not felt since I began college. Today, I possess a passionate enthusiasm and appreciation for the study of law that I could not have acquired without having spent time in academic exile, immersed in the realm of opera. I will always love opera, and I will always be a singer, but I believe the most significant consequence of my life as full-time musician was that it allowed me to realize that I want to be a lawyer. I came to (school) as an aspiring opera singer, but only by following my inner-voice did I find the study of law to be my true inspiration; I knew that I found it when I realized that I do not even miss the applause.

[NoodleyOne]

Hmmm...

It's a fairly interesting topic. Destined for something else and you end up becoming enamored with the sultry seductress that is Law. Your opera background is definitely unique. I think this is something you could make work. The one concern I would have is how adcoms are going to take it. You were interested in something for so long and then switched two years ago? What's to keep law from being just a passing fancy too? How do we know you won't grow tired of law just like you grew tired of opera? Focusing on the background may be a good idea, but I don't like focusing on how you gave up your childhood dream for the allure of law... maybe there's a better way to spin that.

Edit: And if you want to pay it forward by checking out my topic, I'd really appreciate it.

[coldweather]

I agree with the above poster's concerns. I would focus on how opera has shaped and developed you as a person. I feel you are trying to explain why opera hasnt prepared you for law.