<p>My daughter has finished her 2nd year at a conservatory in a major city. She is learning many of the life lessons she would learn with any other major. </p>
<p>She has learned street smarts. She has learned to research housing options, make appointments with realtors to see them and found herself a place to live that she absolutely loves…after making mistakes/and learning from those mistakes with her previous choice. She has developed a network of friends who are there to help her if she needs help…such as when she moved…we live in the middle of the country and she is on the west coast…so she has had to learn to be self sufficient. </p>
<p>As a music major she has had to work very hard…Theory is hard, music history is hard…singing in foreign languages is hard…and all of this builds discipline…and the need to manage her time.</p>
<p>During her two summer breaks she has been very fortunate to have had opportunities to be involved in wonderful summer programs. Last summer she was in NY and had the opportunity to learn from high level professionals the ins and outs of the business. This summer she is in France doing the same…She works hard and is recognized as doing so…There have also been frustrations, difficult people to work with…and that too is a learning experience that will help her in life.</p>
<p>So, yes…for us it is worth it. </p>
<p>We have no idea what the future will hold for her, whether she will ever sing professionally…but she is being prepared for life…she now knows that if everyone gets up and leaves the subway platform when an overhead announcement is being made…perhaps you too should leave with them…(just have to throw this story in)…you see this summer my 2 daugher’s were in Paris…traveling a bit before the music major’s summer program started…They were waiting for the train in a subway 20 steps down…an overhead announcement started…was going so fast that my DD, with her limited French, was not able to catch what the announcer was saying…everyone else got up and left leaving my 2 dear daughters alone in the subway…with their luggage…not wanting to drag it back up the 20 steps…they decided to wait awhile and see what happened…about a half hour later a nice young man happened by (only person they had seen in that 1/2 hour)…he was nice enough to translate the announcement for them…seems that the station they were at was under a bomb threat! Fortunately they were still in one piece and the nice young man helped them locate another subway to get them where they needed to be…</p>
<p>We are letting our children follow their dreams…we are making sacrifices to do so…the vehicle I drive has 175K miles on it…multiple dents from children’s mistakes…but it runs well…I will continue to drive it until it no longer does.</p>
<p>It is right for us…now it is your job to decide what is right for your family.</p>