Finding her niche
"The end of August I came back home, took the bus home, and I went back up to Utah State. For the next year I was in Elementary Education, which I felt was a much better fit for me, I enjoyed it, I like working with kids, I like the whole process of education. I was also playing in the marching band again that year – that year they had me on the bells, no, I think it was a xylophone. A couple of other people were doing some other keyboard instruments and they knew I played the piano they started me on the xylophone. At that point you carried the xylophone with you it was heavy. I weighed it one time and I think it was 27 pounds it was rather heavy. It was not exactly light, but I was a strong girl with a strong back so I was able to do that. We had a group of keyboard percussion on the side that came onto the field later, but right then we were carrying the xylophone with us. I enjoyed that year marching band and went right in, and I was invited to be in some of the other ensembles there on campus. I was playing in the symphonic band also. I might have played in the orchestra that year, anyway just great experiences great time. My family was still living in Benson at this point. So I finished up my second year of school, but I just remember I felt like I just hadn’t quite found my niche yet. There wasn’t quite enough music for me."
"In my third-year college that’s when I started studying music education. It was hard but It was like a great, great fit for me. By this time I have learned some study habits and I was a good student and I enjoyed the music and I wasn’t the most talented musician out there, but I was hard-working, I was dependable, I was a decent musician. One of the things that was perfect about Utah State for me was the fact that they had a good number of programs, but they didn’t have so many kids that they were impacted. There was room for you to go to have different opportunities. For example I was invited to play, to sing in the choir one year. The choir director came and asked me, “I understand that you sing.” I said yes that I do. “I would love you to come sing in the concert choir”, and I said okay I’ll see you in choral, so I went and did that one year. I had a blast it was very fun. After that year I was invited to – I was playing percussion at that point, and I was invited to be in a percussion ensemble, I said, “sure why not”. I was invited to be in the PEP band, which played in the basketball games, that was fun! Not a whole lot of rehearsal time involved and we would play for all of the basketball games. Which was a blast! It was so much more fun than playing for the football games which I found extremely boring, you were inside. If you are playing football at Utah State, it is guaranteed you will be playing in the snow. I remember there was this one USU vs BYU football game, BYU came up and their band came up . It was snowing so hard you could not see the band sitting in the bleachers on the other side of the field. Somebody would get tackled and they would fly 10 yards down the field because it was so slippery. They were trying to figure out where the hashmarks were and where the yard lines were, because there was so much snow on the ground. Finally after the half-time show we just went and stood on the field and played music because we couldn’t move around in formations because it was too difficult. So that was crazy! We went home after the half time show. It’s pretty crazy when the slides on the trombones’ were freezing up, and the valves on the trumpet were sticking, and the percussion instruments were playing when all of a sudden the stick would go flying out of our hands because we couldn’t feel our hands because they were so cold."
"This third-year I’m finally into music, and I’m taking music theory, I’m doing very well going in school. Also because my parents were struggling financially I was able to get a grant for school, and I also had work study - meaning they would allot so many hours for me to work; so much money was allotted for me, I could work – find any job on campus, and there were some jobs that were designated just for the work-study program. So what I decided to do was to go to work for the band - to be a secretary for the band. That turned out to be a job that I had before my mission and after my mission till I graduated from college. I was with the department head laughing as I was called the band-aid - I was the secretary for the band. I would type letters and I would send off mailings for incoming students, and I would just help with whatever secretarial-help that the band director needed or that was needed as far as organizing the marching band or symphonic band and I was also the band librarian and I would pass out all the music. It was a great experience for me to learn how all that works and got all that secretarial training on the job, but also to learn how the band works behind the scenes and so that was great! It was a good, good experience for me."
"In my third-year college that’s when I started studying music education. It was hard but It was like a great, great fit for me. By this time I have learned some study habits and I was a good student and I enjoyed the music and I wasn’t the most talented musician out there, but I was hard-working, I was dependable, I was a decent musician. One of the things that was perfect about Utah State for me was the fact that they had a good number of programs, but they didn’t have so many kids that they were impacted. There was room for you to go to have different opportunities. For example I was invited to play, to sing in the choir one year. The choir director came and asked me, “I understand that you sing.” I said yes that I do. “I would love you to come sing in the concert choir”, and I said okay I’ll see you in choral, so I went and did that one year. I had a blast it was very fun. After that year I was invited to – I was playing percussion at that point, and I was invited to be in a percussion ensemble, I said, “sure why not”. I was invited to be in the PEP band, which played in the basketball games, that was fun! Not a whole lot of rehearsal time involved and we would play for all of the basketball games. Which was a blast! It was so much more fun than playing for the football games which I found extremely boring, you were inside. If you are playing football at Utah State, it is guaranteed you will be playing in the snow. I remember there was this one USU vs BYU football game, BYU came up and their band came up . It was snowing so hard you could not see the band sitting in the bleachers on the other side of the field. Somebody would get tackled and they would fly 10 yards down the field because it was so slippery. They were trying to figure out where the hashmarks were and where the yard lines were, because there was so much snow on the ground. Finally after the half-time show we just went and stood on the field and played music because we couldn’t move around in formations because it was too difficult. So that was crazy! We went home after the half time show. It’s pretty crazy when the slides on the trombones’ were freezing up, and the valves on the trumpet were sticking, and the percussion instruments were playing when all of a sudden the stick would go flying out of our hands because we couldn’t feel our hands because they were so cold."
"This third-year I’m finally into music, and I’m taking music theory, I’m doing very well going in school. Also because my parents were struggling financially I was able to get a grant for school, and I also had work study - meaning they would allot so many hours for me to work; so much money was allotted for me, I could work – find any job on campus, and there were some jobs that were designated just for the work-study program. So what I decided to do was to go to work for the band - to be a secretary for the band. That turned out to be a job that I had before my mission and after my mission till I graduated from college. I was with the department head laughing as I was called the band-aid - I was the secretary for the band. I would type letters and I would send off mailings for incoming students, and I would just help with whatever secretarial-help that the band director needed or that was needed as far as organizing the marching band or symphonic band and I was also the band librarian and I would pass out all the music. It was a great experience for me to learn how all that works and got all that secretarial training on the job, but also to learn how the band works behind the scenes and so that was great! It was a good, good experience for me."
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