Well, no, I don’t mean ab crunches, though I’m sure I could do plenty of those, and I don’t mean Captain Crunch either—what I mean is that it’s crunch time for the future!

In three months time, I will have walked in the graduation ceremony; have my car packed with my wife, my gear, and my dogs; and be on our way to Los Angeles for my summer semester, recording session, and internship! What a time to be alive! Over the next 10 weeks I will be finishing projects for school, interviewing for internships, working on my thesis, and doing plenty of homework and recording.

See, the thing about all of those things is that they are exactly why I came to Columbia College Chicago. They are the reason I have endured sub-zero temperatures for so many years in Chicago (I also attended Columbia for my Bachelors of Music in Composition.) They are the reason I have pushed through the stress, anxiety, writer’s block, and late nights. It has all been worth it, and I am not even done yet.

So what does that mean? What comes next? Well, first things first, I have some things to finish. A personal album that I started, school work, a recording session here in Chicago, and, well, the rest of this spring semester.

Next are all of my interviews. This has been something I have been thinking about since day one of my graduate degree: who do I intern with? While we aren’t guaranteed an internship with the composer of our dreams, it still is something that is an option. I have my list and my meeting time with the department head and will start the process of finalizing my resume and prepping for internship interviews with composers from Los Angeles whom I hope to work with.

This is both exciting and very nerve-wracking, but the best thing to do when going into something like this is to remind yourself that you can do it and to keep your confidence up. No one wants to open up their studio to someone who isn’t confident in who they are and what they can do.

10 weeks seems like a long time, but as each day passes I realize how much time I really don’t have. Luckily I was able to get on top of my time management early. I also am lucky enough to have a very organized wife, and between the two of us, we are all set for Los Angeles and ready for all of the things that it is going to bring to the table. Not that I am saying you should run out and get married—that is a whole different story for another time, not blog-related.

It’s an exciting future ahead! An uncertain future, but still exciting. I mean, worse comes to worse, at least I’ll be in California and not stuck in -50 degree windchill anymore, which sounds just fine to me!