See You Next Year

"See you next year," were the words that RD hung on to as his interview ended last 09 December.  He would not know if he would get an offer to enter the Sydney Conservatorium of Music until January 2016.

The path to this interview had its ups and downs.

RD's friend received an email for her interview schedule on the afternoon of her audition.  RD had his audition on a Wednesday morning.  The day passed and he did not receive any notice.

His told me his theory for the delayed feedback from the Con was that he had his audition on the first day of the piano auditions while his friend's one was on the last day of the violin auditions.

Thursday came and went.  No email.

Friday morning, he waited.  Friday evening, he waited some more.

By Saturday morning, he could no longer wait.  He sent out an email to the school enquiring if they sent out email notices to those that did not pass the audition. In other words, he wanted to know whether no news meant good news or bad news.  

On Sunday afternoon, we heard RD let out a loud painful cry.  We ran to check what had happened. Apparently he received a reply from someone at the Con saying that if you did not receive an email for an interview, it meant that you did not pass the audition.  

RD was heartbroken.  If he did not pass the audition, that meant that he could not get into the Con.  

He had indicated several other choices in his uni applications.  Aside from the music-related courses, his fall-back choice would have been Psychology.  But given a choice (and a chance), the Con is where he wanted to be.

We decided to drive out to distract him a bit.  We knew that there was nothing we could do to help him at this point but we did not want him to be cooped up at home wallowing in self-pity. 

If he didn't pass the audition, then it meant that he would have to pursue something else.  We knew that.  He knew that.  We knew that he knew but we also knew that getting into the Con meant a lot to him.  

He is not the type to wallow in self-pity.  In fact, by Monday morning his mind was already working out what he would do in order to make his way into the course of his choice.  RD's resolve to pursue a career in Music Education was strengthened by this unfortunate set back. It helped that he was able to reach out to his former piano teacher who is in London who gave RD the pep talk he needed and made some suggestions. 

It was past 4 PM on Monday when my mobile rang and it was RD.  He almost never calls me so I knew it was important.  He had the most amazing news to relay.  He said that he paused from a video he was watching, checked his email, and found a message in his Inbox from the Con advising him of his interview schedule for the coming Wednesday.  He was ecstatic.  He said it was totally unexpected but he was so happy to know that he passed his audition and was up for an interview.

He went for his interview on the 9th of December.  The interview seemed to have gone well.  

With his interview ticked off, RD was now waiting for HSC and ATAR results to come out on 16 December and 17 December, respectively.  When those dates arrived, we were extremely happy with his results.  He got five band 6's and two band 5's, and his ATAR was 98.3.  He needed three band 5s  including one in English to get into his first choice of Music Education.

It was now another waiting game for an offer to be made.  

When the offer came on 20 January 2016, he was slightly disappointed because he was not able to get into his Music Education.  He was offered a slot in Music Studies, which was his second choice. When he asked why he didn't get an offer for Music Education, he was told that it was because his band 5 for English as a Second Language (ESL) was not counted as a valid band 5 in English.  This was not something that was disclosed to him when he was making his choices in Year 11 nor was it in any of the published materials RD had seen.   He had assumed that ESL would suffice as an equivalent for English.  

RD would not allow this technicality to hinder his dreams.  He enrolled in his required classes for Music Studies but selected the subjects that would enable him to align as close as possible to a Music Education degree.  Somewhere along the line, he will make his move to shift.  In the meantime, he is just happy to have gotten accepted into the university of his dreams.