Good. Good first day.

So, it feels like a "give you the blow by blow" type day. pause. (had to do it).

Got up at like 8am. Free breakfast in the lobby of my dorm. Holler. Woot woot. Came back and ate a banana. Work. Class. Dinner with friends. But in between the two classes, one thing that had me a little frenzied: books. Now, I don't play games when it comes to books and I usually find out a way not to buy them. Be it library, Borrow Direct,E-books, borrow... buying the book the last option unless I really feel I will be using it in the future. So, of course after my first class I go to the library to get the books... went to three different ones... One question: WHO THE HEEL (yes, heel) done got to the books before me? Oh no no no. And I was hot running back and forth. But it's gonna be alright. Haha.

Classes. Intro to Asian American Studies. Interested. Looking forward to learning. Had the professor before. Should be good. Music Hum. or should I say Masterpieces of Western Music? Why not? Columbia does. Or should I say class full of music by dead white men? Why not? my teacher did. And therein, she stole my heart away. Haha. I forced it. Well, she made me excited about her approach to the class. She's a musical theorist focusing on "pop" music AND she says she primarily looks at it from a feminist approach and acknowledged that there aren't many women or people of color represented in the class. I lit up. Teachers outside of Ethnic Studies that look critically (acknowledging its strengths and weaknesses) at Columbia's CORE curriculum win me over instantly. And we talked about music for a while: when and how we listen, to what etc. Okay, I didn't talk then. But, I listened and answered the little questions on my sheet: paragraph-like. Soaked it all in. Then we listened to 1. "Dies Irae" (a Medieval Chant, apparently no ones knows who wrote it) 2. a piece from Mozart's opera, The Marriage of Figaro (Sull'aria, i think) and 3. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. Needless to say my heart skipped a beat when I recognized the last one (took 2 or 3 seconds) and I looked around, not everyone was as excited- but, this is okay.

For the first time since I've been here, I feel excited about learning. It's a return to a younger me. I feel hella/so/mad/wild alive thinking about it now. I hope this continues. I trust it will. I don't know what's getting into me, but I like it. I thank the Lord above.