Brilliant … But Bouncy

I Wanna Do Music Business.

Dylan’s college orientation turned out to be quite wonderful – with one notable exception.

As usual, Dylan’s college went above and beyond the call of duty to not only educate and inform, but also to entertain. Parents and students alike had a marvelous time; there were tears and lots of laughter. People took notes and recorded things on their phones. Kids met other kids and made friends. It was a joyous, wonderful occasion and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

But at the end of the last parent session, I got a text from Dylan, who was – while sitting in his student orientation session – registering for classes for the fall semester:

Basically I shouldn’t take any of the classes on my list.

I was transfixed in my Parenting Transition seminar and typed back only: why?

This is the recommended first semester registration for my major. He sent a photo with a list of classes for the Music Performance major: Music Theory, Aural Skills, Diction, Piano….

To backtrack, Dylan wanted to study music, but he really didn’t want to go the classical route. Unfortunately, that’s where he landed.

So we went back and forth, via text, as the Parenting Transition seminar ended, and I headed into the Parent Reception. I made a number of suggestions that he summarily dismissed. And, since I’d just been reminded during two full days of orientation to “go with the flow” and “let him make his own decisions,” I finally asked:

How are you feeling about your major?

And got this very immediate response:

I wanna do music business.

Okay, I said.

I can do Music Business and take voice lessons on the side and walk away with so much more than I would with this major.

He was starting to freak out. His emails got longer and more desperate. He wasn’t registering for anything because he didn’t know what to register for. I was scouring the internet, trying to figure out what he should take if he switched to music business, and sending him screenshots – which included courses like Accounting and Macroeconomics.

Why do I have to take Accounting? I don’t want to be an accountant.

I was just wandering amongst the muffin-eating, coffee-drinking parents. I didn’t even know where Dylan was – only that he was about to register for classes he didn’t want to take – and I started to freak out, too.

And that’s when I looked up from my phone. There, among the couple hundred parents drinking juice, and only two feet in front of me, stood the dean of the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University.

Conveniently, I’d met the dean in the fall, at an open house event, so I recognized him right away. And Dylan had contacted him in the fall, too, so the dean actually remembered that Dylan was considering changing his major.

The dean pulled out his cell, made a quick call, and told me what to tell Dylan. Within three minutes, Dylan was crossing campus from the School of Music to the College of Entertainment and Music Business.

I do believe that God put that dean there, at that time, in that place. The timing in that situation was absolutely impossible to ignore. And there weren’t any other deans walking around amongst the parents. This dean was just wandering through, and standing two feet in front of me at exactly the right moment.

And that’s how Dylan changed his major – and all of his class choices – in one fell swoop, just as his college orientation was ending.