This Is My Story, This Is My Song: My College Experience

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Well, what a crazy “beautiful ride” (Dewey Cox, 2007) it has been. I started this journey in a roundabout way, but today I will finally graduate from college and be a True-Son of old Missouri. Some of you know my story like you know some of my songs and I’m so grateful for all of the love and support that I have been given over the years with my musical endeavors and recently with going back to school to further my education.

The one big question you always get asked when going to college is what do you want to do with your life, what’s your dream job? Most of the time when people asked me that question they were under the assumption that I was a “normal” college kid between the ages of twenty -one or twenty-five. Almost every time I was asked that question though I would respond by saying, “I don’t know, I’ve already had my “dream job” in many ways at the age of 23 so it’s kind of hard to say…” Strange looks would usually ensue, and sometimes I would tell my story, but the majority of the time I changed the subject or just kept to myself. To this day though, it still blows my mind that most people think songwriters sell their songs to artists for a flat fee.

Today is truly a full circle moment for me. I feel so blessed to have had so many wonderful opportunities in my short thirty years on this earth and continue to have as I move forward. Earning my degree from a great institution like the University of Missouri gives me a great sense of joy, pride, and accomplishment and no one can take that away from me.

Some say there are two paths in life, one being the road less traveled and the other being paved. Well, I can honestly say that I have experienced both of these paths and have learned so much from both, which are equally valuable. I am forever grateful for all of the knowledge I was able to soak up like a sponge while working as a singer/songwriter in Nashville. I got to learn from some of the best at Big Loud Shirt and from so many other amazingly talented folks on the creative side and the business side of things on a daily basis. I didn’t know it then, but so many lessons I learned from growing as a writer and a person during that period of my life really gave me the tools to be a better student once I returned to school.

My experiences at school were more by the book/paved, figuratively and literally. There definitely was a big adjustment period, but once I got going I felt I couldn’t be stopped. Being an older student mixed in with younger students is truly an interesting and eye opening experience. Your priorities at eighteen and nineteen are a little different than when you are 29 or 30, understandably. Needless to say, I felt like I always could learn something from my younger peers and they could always learn something from me too.

As I am reflecting today, I really did learn a lot from my time in college. Sure, I learned how to solve polynomial functions in college algebra, I became decently fluent with Spanish, memorized a ton of flashcards for physiology, and learned countless communication and sociological theories…all of these things are very important. However, the most important thing I learned from my college experiences and my musical experiences have been within myself — who I am and what I am capable of as a person and a human being.

I learned that I am and will always be that dude who can entertain a room full of people with a couple of chords on a guitar and a sweet melody, but I can also be the guy that enjoys writing a ten-page paper on Mass Media Theory or debating political or social issues. Some of the most valuable lessons we learn in life don’t come from books, they come from living life and figuring things out as we go. I’m sure I will continue to figure things out as I go and that should be an exciting thing for all of us. I am thankful for all of my life experiences both good and bad, they have brought me to where I stand today…diploma in hand and still plenty of songs left in my heart. I’m not exactly sure what my next move will be, but you can bet I will be determined, passionate, and optimistic about the future and all of its possibilities. Sometimes we don’t choose our path, our path chooses us. MIZ…ZOU!!!  -CC

Whatever - A Poem by Clay Cumbie

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Whatever

Simple are the words thrown around

All while complicated corners of the mind yell

The heart drops, splits, and pours out to every distal part of the body.

The abstract becomes more conscious and clear

And the amusement of easiness becomes the new bore

Your whatever you want to call it is always whatever,

And your never is always whatever it is…

Whatever it is that moves us to where we are supposed to be;

scratch that one or two times, and test your sense of humor

  against his

Get a drink and sit in a chair and see what hits you

  in the face.

Maybe you’ll feel the guilt of never saying

whatever it was you needed and wanted to say.

Maybe a religious experience will oddly occur during an

  awkward prayer

And you’ll stumble across something you were never even

  Looking for.

Or maybe you never find whatever it is you were looking for

  in the first place.

It has been a long time since our last assignation

And I fear that whatever you felt for me is no longer

  there.

There is no way to romanticize this moment we casually and

  constantly find ourselves in

Trying to repel the distance between the brokenness which is

shared

 Only to return to the recklessness of despair and selfish repair

The telling is in the touch, while the touching will always tell

If nothing could be something or if something could be dead.

Looking out the window as the sprinkler hits the glass

I am reminded of how circular it all really is in the scheme of

  things

The new becomes old but the old never becomes brand new

Like recycled shoes that end up in a third world country

You begin to realize how important whatever it is –is

The clock suddenly moves in accordance to things of

  importance

Yet the irrelevant intrigues the slightest suggestions of

  comfortability

You find yourself dwelling on the nonsense that only drags

  You deeper into the “whatever it is”…

You begin to witness life in freeze frame images that quickly

  pass you by

Taking in every breath with a new thinking as to where the

  ocean meets the sky

Every step becomes softer, and every word becomes a dessert

  that you wish you would have had twice…

The empty willingness to wake up to a new day still surprises

  the strongest of minds

As we long for a new wind to blow in and rescue us from

  whatever it is we try to escape

The cold room we find ourselves in today, is telling to all

  who came to hear the message

As the eyes of many focus on a stone which carries the

  familiar last name,

You begin to realize the “whatever it is” didn’t pass you by,

  But is waiting for you to make it what it will be.

                                                -Clay Cumbie (2010)