I wonder if the world was always this challenging to navigate. The news is not trustworthy, the subject matter experts completely disagree, politics seeks to influence facts, and information illiteracy runs rampant. Throughout this COVID sheltering in place I have had good reason to avoid tuning into the news. The digital age is a bit of a double edged sword; misinformation is literally crammed down people's throats...yet, anything I want to learn is accessible. And by the way, what on earth did music students do before the internet? Were music library's really robust enough to build off of? Were they balanced with classic, fundamental, and controversial literature? With all that COVID time on my hands, I was fortunate to dive deep into sketchy musical genres, such as rap, and discover an enormous world of music I would have never had access to without the internet. When Berry shutdown I was really disappointed because I was missing out on all the ensemble experience. Instead I acquired working knowledge and competency in applying the structural and stylistic elements of an entire genre to innovate new genre fusions. I learned a lot! Very cool summer.