As a current student in college, I have found that when I’m out in public people tend to ask me the same ole’ questions. “So, what year are you?” “What school do you go to?” “Oh! You go to Belmont? What instrument do you play? Can you sing?” “Are you a music business major?” Well, I’m here to answer those questions and shed some insight from someone who is indeed not a music major. I am a sophomore. I do go to Belmont University; however, I am the most non-musically inclined person someone will ever have the pleasure of knowing.

I can’t carry a tune; I literally asked one of my sorority sisters, who can sing, what a harmony was. I can’t read sheet music; I feel that as an Asian, I would have better luck deciphering Hangul. I also couldn’t play the recorder, or strum the guitar when we all had to take music class in elementary school. I’ve never had an interest in managing, promoting or reality-checking music artists. In general, I have nothing in common with about three-fourths of the student population at Belmont.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE music. Anyone that knows me, has been in the car with me, or has heard me in the shower knows I sing regardless of how bad I sound (sorry to anyone who has first-hand witnessed this). Sometimes I’m even in denial, especially when I’m jamming so hard to Carrie Underwood in the shower and I wonder why I don’t have my own record deal. I then turn off the water, and quickly realize why I don’t have an album – I suck. That’s why I mostly stick to rap music, the only qualifications I need to sound half-way decent is talking extremely fast and throwing my hands around when the song gets intense.

With that being said, I appreciate all of the hard work and seminar classes that the music students have to endure – I’m right there with you in comparison to my organic chemistry and genetics labs. While I present science research projects, the music students perform at various locations across the city of Nashville. They write songs and I write formal lab reports. They host EP parties and invite me to like their new music pages on Facebook. Some of their names even appear on Spotify and iTunes, so that’s cool – I’m going to know famous people before they actually become famous. I also couldn’t accurately say how many times someone has asked me if I have heard some local band’s new song. I feel bad that I have to say, “No, I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But in the end, I listen to the song, thoroughly enjoy it and then go on with the rest of my life until I am guilt-tripped to support another music student in one of my gen-ed classes.

I became enlightened that commercial voice, singing/songwriting, classical music performance, etc. are real majors. Yeah, I thought that was weird at first, too. You just can’t let them see the double-take that your face tends to make when you hear something odd, but by now, one can expect their answer to be the aforementioned majors. They now do the double-takes at me when I explain that I’m a biology pre-med major and chemistry minor. They truly think I’m insane and crazy and wonder why I think growing E. coli bacteria in Genetics is considered “fun.”

At the end of the day, there’s mutual respect among music majors and non-music majors. It’s kind of like the arts versus math and science, but you can’t have one without the other intervening at some point. I wish I could sing or play the guitar, but they wish they could build a serotonin molecule with their eyes closed. Okay maybe not so much the latter, but Belmont allows such diverse people to come into contact with each other, while learning at state of the art facilities, no matter the major. So even though I don’t have anything in common with three-fourths of the Belmont population, we’re still here together, earning our degree. I often do my organic chemistry homework while in the presence of individuals writing songs and having jam sessions. I’m not a music major; I do attend Belmont, and I love every single minute of it.