{"id":278,"date":"2011-02-24T11:07:28","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T11:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=278"},"modified":"2012-03-02T14:20:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T19:20:58","slug":"doing-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2011\/02\/24\/doing-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"DOING IT ALL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music Plus<\/h3>\n
\"\"

Michael Allen often helps lead chapel worship with his singing and piano playing.<\/p><\/div>\n

By the time he was a junior in high school, Michael Allen had surmounted many challenges. He had heard the boys at his first elementary-school track meet shout, \u201cHey, blackie \u2013 you\u2019re going to be real slow.\u201d And he had silenced them by coming in No. 1 in the 200 meters. (And, then, they wanted to be his friends, saying, \u201cAh, man, you\u2019re fast.\u201d)<\/p>\n

He had been named \u201crookie of the year\u201d after his first season of Little League football in Louisa County, Virginia, a rural area between Charlottesville and Richmond.<\/p>\n

He had taught himself to play piano by ear in middle school and then learned to play bass guitar the same way. By his senior year of high school, every week he was playing piano or bass in his House of God Church in Gordonsville, Virginia.<\/p>\n

Michael had ignored the teasing of his three older siblings \u2013 \u201cstop singing, you can\u2019t sing\u201d \u2013 and become vice president of the church youth choir.<\/p>\n

But then he ran into something he just couldn\u2019t do \u2013 or wouldn\u2019t let himself do. A new music teacher asked Michael to join the school chorus for grade 12. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do this,\u201d he recalls the teacher saying. \u201cI know you\u2019ve never read music before, but you\u2019ll be fine. Just try it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael did sign up for chorus, but then she asked him to sing the lead for \u201cStand By Me,\u201d and it was too much. \u201cI had just gotten there. It would have been in front of the whole school. I couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael (class of 2012) has set records in the triple jump and long jump and made All-ODAC First Team (2010 Outdoor Long Jump).<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2010-11, as a junior at EMU, Michael is proving that his high school choral teacher had been right. He can do it all. He sings in the Chamber Singers and the Gospel Choir, plays piano and guitar, leads chapel singing, breaks long-jump and triple-jump records, serves as a \u201ccommunity assistant\u201d in his dormitory, and is known around campus for his ready smile and spirit of helpfulness.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s majoring in both music and business \u2013 combining music and another field of study is a new interdisciplinary option at EMU \u2013 which means he juggles classes like \u201cmicroeconomics\u201d and \u201corganizational behavior\u201d with ones like \u201cconducting\u201d and \u201cmusic theory.\u201d To tell the truth, however, Michael still finds it torturous to read music.<\/p>\n

After Michael graduates, he hopes to see much of the world, perhaps performing with a group like \u201cUp With People,\u201d then return home and start his own business, likely in the music arena. And, oh, he also wants to qualify for the Olympics in the long jump and triple jump.<\/p>\n

Michael has gotten lots of support at home and at EMU, and he credits this for keeping him on the path to success, especially since his four closest friends from high school aren\u2019t doing as well. One is even in prison. But Michael also gets credit for deciding to be a winner. Now if only he could only learn to enjoy sight reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music Plus By the time he was a junior in high school, Michael Allen had surmounted many challenges. He had heard the boys at his first elementary-school track meet shout, \u201cHey, blackie \u2013 you\u2019re going to be real slow.\u201d And he had silenced them by coming in No. 1 in the 200 meters. (And, then, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[142,148],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fallwinter-2010-11","category-magazine","tag-michael-allen","tag-music","issues-fallwinter-2010-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}