Campus Rock and Roll - part 1 - Short Story About Life Lessons

I'm a freshman studying at a new campus on the edge of the capital city. I come from a rural area which known had the highest crime rate in my province. People said if 80% of em is criminals, the rest is just casual villager who lived by farming and ranching. I called it true even though me and my family was included in that rest 20%.

I thought that college students were open-minded and did not easily judge people by stereotypes. But even though I explained my origins clearly during my introduction, most students chose to stay away from me.

I'm okay with that. It's their choice and preference anyway. I can't control people's perspectives, so the only thing that I can do to gain their trust is to prove to myself that I'm not what they think about me.

Since my campus is new, there is a rule that each student must join at least one club since the second semester to increase the campus activity and accreditation. So I joined a rock music club because of my classmate's invitation. I'm not that into music so I thought I was just gonna be a passive member just to follow the campus rules.

Unexpectedly the club is fun because the members embrace an anti-establishment ideology, open minded, and accept me without judging where do I come from. The club only had one grup band, but members are allowed to make their own band group as they wish.

The club activity agenda is only one, wich to perform on the dies natalis aka. Campus anniversary stage. But to add main band's activities, they often perform in random campus events either inside and nearby the city.

Every day our activity as new members just chilling in the club room watching the main band practice. We were allowed to practice with the instrument a few times a week when the main band was not practicing. The campus funds our club with sufficient instruments so I with some new members decided to make our own band group.

In my second semester, I become the leader of one of the three bands in the club. So the practice schedule is for 6 days a week, and each band is allowed to practice every 2 days. My bad reputation because of my hometown is slowly forgotten and befriended by many students.

A year afterward, my band performed on campus dies natalis stage also in many stage of event outside or inside the city. I told my parents about what I've achieved every time I go home in college break, but I could see in their eyes if they not much satisfied with it.

My parents never complained about what I've achieved and kept telling me to put more focus on college. Probably they thought that rock clubs are associated with crime, alcoholics, rebels, and worried that I was gonna fall into it. Somehow my parents' prohibition motivates me to prove to them that my band club is producing something positive. 

In the third year, I must detach myself from the club activities because I must focus on the internship and the final thesis. Even though not actively practice and gather in the club room, I still love to listen to rock music and contact my junior to advice about rock band activities.

After my internship, due to my reputation, I was appointed to lead a thesis group guided by one professor. Story short ahead, some students in my group found out had a problem with plagiarism and using jockey services. So the professor repeatedly rejected some of their thesis proposals.

One night, the professor found several acts of terror in his house. A plastic bag of rotten blood was thrown in the front door of the professor's house. The impact made the bag explode and the blood splattered. There's also a terror letter with death threats, bad swear words, rape, and kidnap threats, etc. 

On the third time that terror act, the culprit was dumb enough to demand that the professor accept all the rejected thesis proposals of his students to stop the terror. With that, it's clear that the culprit is one of the professor's students which in his thesis guidance team.

Read more part 2 here

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