With a skeptical mindset and a notebook and folder tucked underneath my armpit, I made my way across a very foreign college campus. After being a touring musician for so many years, attempting to return back to school has been a very interesting learning experience to say the least. I told myself on that first day, if the professor gave me any crap for missing the first week (I exhibited at the New York Gift Fair with Chandler that week) ,or for not having read all of the required reading material, or for not having all of my homework I would skip out of the University lifestyle without a second thought.
I took a seat near the front, struggled to maneuver the stow-away-desk from the side of my seat to a horizontal position, while I waited for the professor to either chastise me or ignore me all together. Neither event took place. He simply looked up with a pleasant smile as he poured a cup of steaming hot tea for himself behind the podium. "I haven't seen you in class before. Are you a new student?" His voice purred with soft undertones like a cat finding a surprisingly warm spot on the couch. "Yes." I answered, my eyes nervously traveling back and forth across the classroom. "Please don't pause too much on my behalf professor," I thought to myself. I'd much prefer to melt into the sea of random students, do the homework, and skedaddle. But he proceeded to ask THE question: "So, are you related to Peter Frampton?" The side of his lips curled into a tiny sideways moon. "I wish!" Hey, this guy wasn't half bad!
For some reason (I hate to admit this now.) I thought that all of my traveling experience I've had all these years as a musician would make me more intelligent and "worldly" than any of my fellow students and even my professor! I believed that I didn't need them. I didn't need anybody! Well, that first class really knocked me back into reality and humbled me right down to the bone. Every student, instead of slinking back into their seat after the professor asked a question, didn't bother to raise a hand, and instead, simply spoke out their very well-thought-out opinions and concerns in confident voices. We were having GREAT thought-stimulating discussions. I was… dare-I-say-it learning.
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