Great news from my little but lovely flat in Leeds!
Among the usual bills and the latest issue of MusichTech, I found in the mailbox an envelope with the logo of Leeds Beckett University; within, my degree certificate. Master of Arts in Music Production.
I hold this piece of paper in my hands and I can't help thinking about the road that led me here. The awareness of having done a lot, of still having a lot to do.
I look at this piece of paper and I look to the past: to the last year, when I started this Master; to two years ago, when I first moved to the UK; to five years ago, when I had no idea of what was expecting me, I couldn't image myself in five years to be here, with this piece of paper in my hands.
It's not easy to understand what you long for in life. How many people make the wrong choice, how many of them realise so only later, and they decide to study what they love most after a life of disappointments. It's not easy to know what we should expect from ourselves, and it's even harder to find the willpower to get yourself to work, to put yourself on the line, leave you home and go far away.
It's not simple to live in another country, but it becomes an exciting challenge if you keep a target in your mind. I owe a lot to the CSM College in Verona (Italy), the Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, England, to this Country; to the people I met, the things I learned, to the resources I have been given access to, and the passion for music that my teachers, tutors, and mentors passed to me.
Thinking about all of that, this certificate becomes something different from a piece of paper. It is a page of passport, it's a place card, just one step of many. An achievement, that pays me back of all the sacrifices I made, and that gives me the will to go on.
The certificate of what I know, the springboard for many more thing I will learn.
What I've taken from it is: if you have a desire, but you're afraid of the difficulties you'll have to go through, put your fears aside and pack your bags.
