3 or 4 days from it's deadline, and the thought strikes me that, 'wow, this diabetes opera thing is actually happening!' So far, I'm feeling pretty good about how this last-minute project is pulling together; I can't wait to see what I'm able to do with a project that I spend two academic years working on!

In diabetes news, I need to be better at remembering to take my metformin in the evening. For the last few days, I test my sugars 2 hours after dinner - surprise surprise, they're high because I didn't take my pills with the meal. Generally, though, sugars have been quite good considering how low everything that isn't composing is on my list of priorities.

finally feeling like a composer

2 things have played a prominent role in leading me to where I am right now:

1) Deadlines - I know I've talked about my need for them here before, so I won't bore you. Especially in this last month, I've had nothing but deadlines, and they've left me little time for relaxing.

B) At one point this year, my teacher said some blunt things that really put it all into perspective. He said, 'You can't call yourself a composer unless you compose,' and then asked me if the act of composing was really a defining feature of my existence.

It wasn't.

Now it is.

In the span of a week, I wrote an art song. While this is not record speed for most composers, this was unprecedentedly fast for me. It was intense, but I'm happy with what I wrote and looking forward to rehearsals and the performance in June!

I am five days into the span of two weeks during which I will be writing about ten minutes of opera.

I don't want to sound too cliché, but I don't understand how I considered myself a composer before. I'm now invested in this, and I plan to stay that way!