Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Be Cool - Go Back to School

I apologize for slacking on posts this month.  So much on my mind right now, but it's been tough to gather all of those thoughts and put them together into a coherent post.

Not that this one will be any more coherent than the rest.  But it's always a goal.

So, apart from the wedding and the move and everything that goes along with those endeavors, the most daunting thing on my mind right now is the prospect of trying to go back to school, once we move and I've learned Danish well enough to be admitted into a program.

It's complicated, both logistically and psychologically, for me to take this plunge.

Logistically, it's a matter of finding out what I qualify for financially.  This has brought up the somewhat controversial question of SU.  SU is a government agency/program that provides a stipend for Danish students attending university in Denmark.  That bit isn't all that controversial in Denmark.  The Danes pay high taxes, and this (on top of free tuition) is a benefit that they see from those taxes.  It becomes controversial when you're a foreigner who is potentially also eligible.  According to the SU website, I may be able to receive this stipend as well, since my fiance is an EU citizen.  If I am given "equal status" to that of a Dane because of my marriage to him, then I would be eligible to receive all (or most) of the benefits that a tax-paying Dane would receive, without having grown up there and paid taxes there my whole life.  That being said, we will be living and paying taxes there starting this summer, and have no specific plans to leave, so this issue is far less controversial in my mind than it is for many Danes and expats.

The psychological complications with this school thing are far more complex and irritating.  It's all about insecurity.

Worrying about whether or not I would even get into a music program makes me scared to try.  Truth is, I realized recently that I'm the musical version of the jock whose career peaked in high school.  All of my major musical accomplishments happened when I was a junior and senior, with some minor overflow into my first 2 years of college.  Most of the friends that I've met in the last 10 years have never even heard me sing (bad karaoke doesn't count).

The logistical issues are issues that I can deal with through research and patience.

The insecurities will take a bit more to get past.

2 comments:

  1. There are a lot of programmes in English, (though I'm not sure which subjects), so maybe you won't have to wait out until your Danish levels up.

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  2. I had considered that. But from what I've read so far, most of the music programs around CPH are taught in Danish. It's possible, though, that I've missed something.

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