Student reflects on semester at Martha's Vineyard

By the time I left Cincinnati for my long trip north to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, regular Milligan students had already been in school for a month. I sat at home enjoying my extra bit of summer. Reading mass emails about buying/selling books and the usual Milligan events was a strange thing for me to not be a part of as I sat at the computer in my brother’s bedroom during the hot mid-afternoons of late August and early September.

Now, I’m sitting with my laptop in my dorm room at the Contemporary Music Center on Martha’s Vineyard. The air is chilly outside, and the leaves are starting to change. It seems that change, more than music, is what this semester is all about.

I guess I should start by giving you an idea of what I’m doing up here on our secluded campus in the middle of an island. The CMC is a domestic study program through Milligan College and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. The goal is to study and gain experience in the professional music industry and to develop the skills necessary to be successful as either an artist or an executive in the industry. Thirty-two students are chosen to participate each semester in either of these tracks; I am studying the artist track, which includes courses in songwriting, recording and performance.

I am amazed that I am able to work with such talented people and that we are all gathered here with the same purpose in mind. Two of my friends did a show in town last weekend, and I sat there thinking, “We’re just a bunch of college kids! We’re running the sound, performing with our own bands and rocking the locals out of their seats. This is amazing!” And it truly is. And I can feel a change rising in myself already.

The typical thing to say is that I’m growing musically, spiritually and in many other ways as well. That’s just easier to say than how I really feel. The fact is that I can’t accurately describe it. I just can’t. Kathleen Norris, in a book that I’m currently reading entitled “The Cloister Walk,” writes, “Poets understand that they do not know what they mean.” Sometimes, we know what it is we want to express but struggle to find the words.

There are two facets to songwriting: craft and inspiration. Being here has allowed me to struggle through writing as I’ve never struggled with writing before.

As I’m challenged musically- to invent chord progressions, wrinkles, hooks, pre-choruses, bridges, or breaking the songwriting “rules” altogether- I face my own musical weaknesses and strengths. I am stretched to be creative because my knowledge is limited. I’m learning. However, my lack of music theory and formal training allow me some freedom to explore, and that has been a learning experience for me as well.

Living on an artist’s colony, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, is especially inspiring. I can’t think of a better place not only to explore art and music but also to delve into my soul and evoke what lies inside. We’re all trying to discover who we are as artists and as Christians and how we can reconcile the two. Do I want to do contemporary Christian music? Do I want to play at bars and clubs? How do I play for a non-Christian audience when the very core of who I am is a believer and lover of God? How do I express my faith and the truths I have learned about life through the art I create?

There are so many more questions that I won’t ask or dare to answer. But I will say this. The best that I can do is express what I feel. I’ve been on this Vincent Van Gogh kick lately, and he says, “I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say, ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.’” And that’s all that I can hope to do. I don’t know how people will respond to my lyrics, or if they’ll even care how I use the I, IV, V, and VImi chords. But I’ll know at the end of a show whether I connected with the people in the room or at the bar or club.

Facing the challenges of songwriting and working through the issues of who I am and how God is using me is one of the greatest experiences of my life. As Milligan students continue on in their humanities studies and chapel services, I feel I’m learning more about humanity and God than I ever have before.

Victoria is a senior majoring in Fine Arts major with an emphasis in theater and a minor in Communications.