II started playing the violin at 5 years old.

It was a typical villain origin story.I got in the car, I was told “we’re going to get ice cream situation” where I got in the car expecting a sweet dessert only to be disappointed arriving at my first violin lesson.

Initially, I hated it; I hated everything about it. My friends would talk about how they enjoyed their weekend playing soccer at the park, while I was stuck rotting in a dingy music academy with old people.

This all promptly changed after I heard Anne Sophie Mutter's 1988 recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto for the first time. The sweet, sentimental sound of her sound drowned out the chicken scratch sound that I had associated with the violin in my hands.

Following this change in heart, I fell in love with not only the violin but also with music. My life had completely changed as I knew it. I began to enjoy my weekly violin lesson and practiced diligently in anticipation. And before I knew it, I was taking two violin lessons a week along with a guitar and piano lesson every week (my poor parents).

Entering my first semester at UGA, I began freshman year with a biochemistry major with the intention of applying for medical school. Up to this point, I had been immersed in multiple orchestras and ensembles at a time from the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra to All State Orchestra. In the first two weeks of college, I realized that being immersed in music was, simply, something I could not live without. And I have since been a double major in Music Performance and Biochemistry. With the music program requiring about ten to fifteen hours a week in rehearsal time, it has been a struggle to balance my life as a double major. And from time to time, I contemplate dropping one or the other. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t change any decision I have made up to this point for the world, and I have that first “ice cream run” to thank for that.