JHU, clarinets and trash cans? - How one woman learned to follow her dreams, listen to Mom and love Hopkins.

I'm still here. It's been a whole four years and I'm about to embark upon my fifth and final year. Walking around campus, I've been bombarded by the presence of freshman, their new-found friends and concerned parents. This has all taken me back four years to when I was a wide-eyed freshman, eagerly anticipating my parents' departure and my college beginnings.

But with those beginnings came more than just freedom. I had suddenly become responsible for my own well-being and learned some life lessons, which my parents had always tried to teach to me, along the way. The thing I realized about these lessons is that they cannot be learned, really. As teenagers, we were capable of understanding things our parents told us, but to fully comprehend the range of those lessons meant that we had to experience certain things firsthand.

I'm not here to impart any secret wisdom to the college newbies. I just want you to take in your first week at Johns Hopkins and realize that you are all in the same boat. Each and every one of you has some idea of college in your mind, but as time passes, that conception will surely change. Just keep in mind that there are lessons to be learned that don't involve the classroom, and that it is those experiences that make up the most important part of your education here.

As I look back upon my first week in Baltimore, I am shocked to think I almost ended up at Emory University, which is twenty minutes south from Dunwoody, Georgia, where I had grown up and gone to school. In retrospect, I'm glad things turned out the way they did, but at the time, if it hadn't been for my mother, I would always ask myself "What if?" about my musical pursuits. Let me explain.

My life has always involved music of some sort, and when I picked up the clarinet in sixth grade, I inadvertantly began a life's pursuit of music. Who knew that at age twelve I could be watering the seeds of a future career? I certainly saw the clarinet as a thing to be disdained, since what I really wanted to do was play the french horn. But, alas, I was forced by my mother - in true Asian-parent fashion - to pick a more "feminine" instrument. Ironically, I think there are more recognized, professional female french horn players out there than female clarinet players. Regardless, that is what led me to be a clarinetist, and, to this day, I play.

When it came time to fill out applications, I did so. The bulk of my completed college applications ended up in the garbage can. Those that did not were sent out with a 30 December postmark. My Johns Hopkins application was among those that got thrown out. So how did I end up here? My mother fished it out and mailed it without telling me what she was doing.

Imagine my surprise when I got an acceptance letter in April from Johns Hopkins University. I was confused. But looking back, I realize that my mother knew what she was doing. She had a sense that Hopkins was the school for me and felt strongly enough about it to send my application without telling me about it. When my acceptance letter came, I realized I could still pursue both interests by applying for the double-degree program with the Peabody Institute of Music, which is both a division of Johns Hopkins and happens to be one of the best music conservatories in the country. So, I filled out an application and, at the beginning of my second year, was accepted into the double -degree program. So far, I've amassed more than 170 credits.

Throughout high school, I had agonized over my college plans. As an academically and musically-able student, it was hard to decide which path to take. And though Robert Frost recommends "The Road Less Taken," I felt unable to commit in one direction without regretting the other. So, I opted not to be sorry and traveled down both with my legs stretching farther and farther apart to maintain an upright balance.

Today, I'm happy to have had that rare opportunity to simultaneously travel along two paths, for it has made me realize what part music will play in my life. Though I no longer have any desire to pursue it as a career, I know that I will have no regrets, because at least I gave it the ol' college try. And, in turn, I recommend that you give it the 'ol college try, too: Try new things and join organizations in your pursuit of a full, college career.