Dylan Twaddle

Much is required to achieve success. Many people think of the fruits that come from it, but forget to take in account the amount of work that’s required. Being successful as an artist requires entrepreneurship, self-responsibility, and perseverance. As a singer I constantly practice my sight reading skills with my voice and piano, and do intense breathing exercises. Also I work out regularly to keep my body, or my instrument, healthy.

In order to be fully prepared, I must take a plethora of classes. For my future I need to take years of voice lessons, music theory, and piano classes. Also, I need to have experience within ensembles including choral, and orchestral. Having more experience under my belt is key.

I understand I can’t make my money with practice, and that I’m bound and destined to face rejection, struggle, and disapproval. I am also aware that I may not even be successful with my art, especially at first. But that’s life, you have to take risks. If you don’t take risks or take chances, then you may never know what glorious fruits can come in the future.

Since I plan on minoring in Creative Computation, I will have coding and programming experience under my belt. Coding and programming is something that’s used very widely in the world today, also it’s a demanding field. With the creative side attached to my coding experience, I will be able to create things with my programming skills that the average Joe doesn’t create. I plan on getting a job involving coding/programming so I can have a foundation and steady income before I start to take big risks and pursue my career in music which could possibly go under.

For starters, I want to get myself known within the Dallas Fort Worth area and Houston area as well. After I make myself known, and hopefully I will have met wonderful people establishing a good relationship, I plan on getting hired on by a symphony, a chorus, or even teaching private voice lessons.

I want to support orphanages most of all with my charities, because the children that are in those places have no parent to care for them, and as a human being, the children deserve the best upbringing that they can get.

Im going to have to wait until I even think about having children until I have paid off all of my debt created by student loans, so im going to be supporting myself for the majority of my youthful life, which I honestly find depressing. I like people, so that’s why I want to work with people within the arts. The people are just the most loving, caring, friendly, and unique humans that any fortunate person would have to opportunity to meet.

Overall I have to study my ass off for the next four years, keep up my GPA, and make sure I don’t lose my scholarship. All I have is myself and what I create for my life. I have nobody else to depend on except myself. If I screw this opportunity up, then I’m going to be struggling through blue collar work force for all of my life, and I will not be able to create a better childhood than I had for my kids.  This is my golden opportunity and the moment of truth in my life. I have to work hard, and keep myself from giving in to the many distractions that surround me in my new environment.

I’m extremely adaptive to anything that comes to me in life. The only thing we can expect in life is Change, and nothing else. So we must be prepared to coexist and manipulate ourselves to conform to this change so we can live harmoniously. Refusing to adapt is like refusing to make life easier on ourselves. Whatever challenges come at us that cause us to say, “this is different”, is there so we can look at life in a new light, thinking outside the box, and opening opportunities for us to accept or decline.

I am creative; I like to execute issues and projects in different ways in order to make them unique as well as top-notch.  Thinking outside the box is what creates new ideas and opens new doors for us to think a different way.

People are important to me. I find it extremely important to have people skills and to be able to get along with everyone that we come into contact with in life. This way we can expand our network even larger to open up new opportunities.

Time management is also very important. If one can’t manage their own lives, how can they manage anything else? Like a business? Or a family? This is an important skill for life. Its not just important for ourselves, but everyone around us as well so that we can all work together in a collaborative and cooperative manner.

Overall I must learn patience, as not everything comes within our thought of what a good time frame is. Things aren’t always in our control, and I must accept that. I accept that I can’t make anyone do anything, but what I have trouble accepting is that sometimes I can’t make people see what I see. They just have to experience it for themselves in order to truly understand.

I Am Dylan Twaddle, an aspiring baritone voice major at SMU longing to express myself through my voice. I want to improve everyone’s quality of living by giving them the opportunity to see life in a different light through expression of music, accurately aiming to sing opera all around the world. I wish to connect with people on a deeper level for greater understanding and use my voice as a catalyst for spiritual awakening and epiphany. There is great power in music, and I want to use this power to reach out to those who need a message of hope and newfound joy in life. I have a great love for opera and humanity, and my best way to express it is through my God given gift. I yearn to get involved with more musical undertakings at SMU, and grow holistically with others while connecting with them as well. I am interested in any opportunity that might come to cross my path. Please, have a card. (Business card)

I find it very interesting how the research showed that money was not the best incentive to get someone to do the best job; I would think that most people in the world are like that. But it just goes to show how similar we are. We seek purpose within our lives, when we find it we take it and run. We hold onto it for as long as we can. I seek my purpose in my life every day. But I don’t just have one set purpose. My purpose is manipulated every day depending on what happens next. One day I may be motivated by helping others, or I may be motivated by the feeling I get when I do work that I enjoy.

My future is dependent upon what I do today. One could say that I am driven today for a better tomorrow. I want to make things better and easier for the world. When we do the things we enjoy, we are putting out positive energy, and we are creating something wonderful that will be successful: reason being that the amount of time, effort and energy is dramatically different than one who hates what they are doing.

The wondrous feeling I get from music that resonates me is what I desire to achieve with my work. I want to give that feeling of ecstasy to people and strike them with awe. When it comes to my work with music, my motivation is the people. I want to reach out to people and tell them something wonderful! Spread good news and thoughts of happy futures. I want to instill hope within people who have lost it, and reinforce those who have it already. I want happiness to be spread, I want people to console each other and learn to forgive and live with one another.

Whenever I jump into something new, whether it is music, a book, or anything, I get really engaged and passionate about it. I am constantly trying to create connections and relations between what I am learning so I can attempt to understand it myself, without even understanding it at first. If something is not the way that I am able to learn it, and it is required, I somehow, someway figure out a way for me to analyze it in a different way so that I may absorb it. And doing this process actually helps me learn about it even more easily and efficiently.

Based on habit, and depending on the subject, I am used to looking at a study sheet, memorizing it quickly, regurgitating it for the test, and discarding it into my subconscious. That’s what they teach you in high school at least. But if I find it captivating and fascinating, I will go out of my way to find out more than what is prescribed for me to learn. I love figuring out different ways to do the same thing, and seeing the results. I find that each of our interests is unique and is what gives us character, so when I find interest in something, I will relate it to myself, and perhaps even incorporate it into my daily life if it impacts me to do so. I love the whole process of contemplating “what am I going to do now”?

Generally I like to keep a mental planner, and rarely will I ever forget something that needs to be done. I am usually in good upkeep with my schoolwork, prioritizing what should be done when and how. However, one thing that bothers me is forgetting about something until the last day or minute. The feeling of stress from that single realization is enormous, and tends to consume me by affecting everything I do. I find that I should write things down because even if the task is menial, needing it done in a small window of time can be nerve-racking. Time management is extremely important, and I study different subjects differently of course. With music I like to sit in a medium sized room with silence, the score in my hand, and a computer to play the music on so I can play the music with it. I don’t mind people being around as long as they act as if they weren’t there. If I see a random person in the room I may hesitate to continue, but then I will realize how ridiculous it is to be sitting there and how rude it is to turn away a person that actually wants to hear what’s coming out of my mouth. When I study the Calculus, I love to have trance music playing in the background, keeping me going at a nice groovy beat as I contemplate concepts and complete a list of problems. It keeps me focused on math, distracted from the world, and it helps me bite my fingernails less. I have to learn to stop biting my nails; I don’t think I have had a full grown nail in over 6 years; to me that’s kind of gross. Talk about stress….

I don’t like to overload myself with work because it stresses me out and does no good for me. I like to keep my mind focused on the most important task at hand, so that when it’s done, a huge burden has been lifted, and I can carry on feeling lighter and happier. I like to have order with my tasks, if it’s a list; it needs to be made into a list. I get frustrated when someone drops a load of things to do in your lap at once, especially unexpected (i.e. chores). I get more frustrated with small tasks because of the time consumption, yea it may be easier, but I could care less. How much time will it take?

I also tend to work better with rewards of course, even if there isn’t much of a reward, the “free time” is good enough for me. I would like as much of my time to be stress free as possible. That’s my drive for working efficiently, and doing it correctly. If I mess up the first time, second, or third, oh well. It’s just another lesson I obviously needed to learn.

I was born and raised in Texas, coming from a dysfunctional, like many, family that had a great number of problems with not only financial security, but moral values as well.

I was born in Arlington Texas, and went through multiple custody battles. I have moved 24 times all within the Great state of Texas, and it was all due to a lack of financial responsibility and ignorance. Seeing all that I have seen, which most haven’t for my age, I took what good I saw, and held onto it, while I used the terrible examples of people around me to know what NOT to do. I would notice things that most kids wouldn’t within the adult world, like how backstabbing people were to each other, including within my family most of all. I would notice how one would try to take advantage of the other, or if one felt uncomfortable, they would make everyone else feel the same way.

This can be confusing as a child, who is supposedly absorbing everything to its brain like a sponge. But I was able, by the grace and wisdom of God, to discern between the nonsense, and the things that were sensible.

When I got into middle school, I was hesitant at first, but after speaking with my brother, he convinced me to join the choir, because the teacher was excellent and hilarious.

I stuck with choir throughout the many middle schools and high schools that I attended, and finally during my senior year, something hit me. I decided that I was going to do something with my voice, since I had been told by many that I was gifted. My choral Director, Gordon Ivers, started paying for my first year of voice lesson my senior year out of his own pocket to a wonderful lady named Flicka Rahn. She taught me what I needed to know in order to attempt to become a music student. I was unaware of the audition process and I was blessed to have her help me learn three classical Solos, which gained me admittance to the prestigious SMU.

I want to spread beautiful music and share it with people all over the world, so I can reach out and share something with them. I strive to create a legacy for my family, and my descendants so that they don’t ever have to experience the “nonsense” that I experienced. I want there to be security for my children, and I want to create an environment that they can flourish in.