Hello! Welcome to the first post of my blog, let's see how long I can keep this going! (It'll at least last throughout my course as some modules require it. 😬)
So getting right into the meat of it - last (academic) year I completed the third year of my BA Commercial Music Degree, which for all you non-Scots is the penultimate year of a standard Honours Degree in Scottish Universities. Halfway through the year, I started to make steps to finish this third year with a high enough grade to skip the final fourth year, and instead enter straight into MA Music. I won't get into the requirements for that, but long story short I was successful and am now beginning a Masters Degree in Songwriting.
Upon receiving acceptance into the course, I experienced such a huge confidence boost and assurance of my ability, and I was frankly over the moon. I had known upon applying that all applicants would be put forward for the Paolo Nutini Songwriting Scholarship, which offers a fully funded student place on the course (because whilst SAAS is a blessing, they ain't paying for your Masters). However, as a younger student (with a limited amount of life and work experience) who didn't have an Honours degree, I didn't really expect to be the person who received this amazing thing.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, and indeed two weeks before the course started, and any tiny hope I had is definitely gone as it's time to enrol - I'm halfway through that process at the time, actually - and surely I would have been told before this had I been chosen, right? Well...
I receive a message from the lecturer who organises the course, asking me to call him because he has good news. On the phone, he tells me that the panel who selects the Paolo Nutini Songwriting Scholar is impressed with my work and growth as a writer, and have chosen me.
This is already overwhelming and amazing and I am so so thankful, but after meeting all my classmates today and hearing their music... I have spent a lot of years feeling like I need to be a big fish in a small pond to feel successful, but this I think is the turning point where I've realised I'm finally comfortable in a lake (maybe not the ocean yet - we'll get there!).
So yeah, overused metaphors aside, I am so so thankful to Paolo for providing this opportunity, and for everyone on that panel and my lecturers who support and encourage my work, and also my dad for telling me when I'm shit (because that's super important!). I am so excited for this coming year and all the work I'll be producing - it's been so long since I've focused near solely on songwriting, and I am ready for it. Watch me eat those words when I'm drowning in work later on, but for now I am immensely happy and feeling creative. Wish me luck everyone! 🥰