Our interests rarely stay the same. In childhood, many of us dream of becoming superheroes, a few years later, we want to be something completely different.
These shifts led me somewhere I never expected, from writing music to teaching computers to understand it.
These shifts may happen many times, or never at all in our lives. Some see this jumping from one thing to another as a weakness, and there's even a saying for it: "Jack of all trades, master of none."
I see it differently: as a hint guiding me toward my real path.
An article that changed my plans
I studied music composition at the Tehran University of Art, where I spent years learning to write and shape sound.
Everything changed when I read a text by chance about AI and music online. It led me to a completely new field: Music and Science here at JYU.
It was a simple article about how computers and artificial intelligence interact with music. Reading it reminded me of a passion I had left behind, my love for mathematics, physics, and computers from my high school years.
Finding the article was pure chance, but the passion it woke up had always been inside of me.
From fearing the Finnish winter to admiring it
So, I started searching for a combination of music and science. One university kept coming up: the University of Jyväskylä. It was the one that offered exactly the interdisciplinary field I was looking for, music and science.
Some other universities offered similar positions for this combination, but the reputation of the university and its department convinced me it was the right choice, and the beauty of Finnish nature made that decision complete and easy.
Like anyone facing a big decision in life, I had my doubts too. The most obvious one was winter, winter, and more winter.
Moving from a warm region to Finland scared me a lot. But now, watching the sky lay a white robe over the land, I feel something words can hardly explain.
Shift in interest put me on the right path
And now, here I am, a second-year master's student in Music and Science at the University of Jyväskylä, writing my journey to JYU for you.
When I look back on this path, with all its good and bad, I'm grateful that I chose to follow the hint instead of fearing the change.
So, if you experience these shifts in your interests, don't worry. Sometimes that's exactly how you find where you belong.
Share this article
