Everything you learn after a summer at Brevard Music Center

You probably woke up with a spider crawling on your face at least once

| UPDATED

Brevard Music Center, located just outside Pisgah Forest in Brevard, North Carolina, is a seven-week summer music festival that brings together young classical musicians and faculty from all over the country and abroad to give major orchestral performances every week.

If you’ve spent a summer there, you know better than anyone that Brevard is an incredible place with a handful of quirks. And if you weren’t a little nervous about spending seven weeks living in a cabin in the woods, you’re lying.

Stephen Houseworth

It rained every day

After the third week, you stopped checking the weather in the morning. You could safely assume that by 2pm, it would be pouring outside and probably not stop until after you’d been sufficiently drenched at least once that day.

You hiked to the nearby waterfalls to take dope Insta pics

Did you fear others calling you basic? No. You embraced it like a champion. Were the 20-minute drive, 10-mile hike and three hours out of your day you could’ve spent practicing worth the Instagram likes? Absolutely.

You always wanted Taco Bell

Even though the cafeteria was basically an all-you-can-eat buffet, you were constantly hungry for Taco Bell. Sonic was also a viable option. Unless you could convince someone with a car that going to get Taco Bell at 1.35am on a Tuesday was a great idea, your craving tragically went unsatisfied.

You probably woke up with a spider crawling on your face at least once

That’s the price you pay for living in the middle of the forest. The air was fresh, the views were incredible and the wildlife often took up residence underneath your comforter.

Your legs were hella toned by the end of the summer thanks to Brevard’s scenic, mountain-top location

Did you complain every time you walked up the hill to your cabin? Yes. But did your quads and calves look fabulous just in time for going back to school? Also yes.

You went to Asheville on the weekends for your dose of hipster culture

Since Brevard is more cute-old-folk town than hip-bustling urban center, you had to go out of your way to get your bubble tea and organic vegan sushi fix. You certainly took a few pics posing in front of the huge graffitied murals just to let everyone one back home know you’re having a fun summer.

Bowleoke was the go-to weekend plan

A bowling alley full of inebriated classical musicians singing karaoke extremely well was exactly what you expected to find in small town, North Carolina. It came as no surprise that even after a few beers, the singing was always in tune, with good articulation and vibrato.

You heard the words, ‘I need to practice’ at least eight times per day

At least two of those times, you were the one saying it. Brevard was just another place where you got to rediscover the fact that you are never done practicing. That also meant you’d never be done complaining about practicing, either.

You mastered the art of the practice room selfie

Most of the practice rooms had mirrors and many large windows, which was great for lighting purposes, but also meant you ran the risk of being seen by a fellow camper or faculty member while taking your mirror selfie. You had to be quick. Luckily, by about the fifth week you were a pro, so finding the optimal pose and camera angle to feature both you and your instrument was second nature.

Laundry was your favorite activity, next to practicing

Since there are no washing machines on campus, if you didn’t have a car, getting to the laundromat downtown was always interesting. If your friend with the car didn’t need to do laundry at the same time as you, you probably turned your underwear inside out and wore it again or ended up washing it in the bathroom sink like a lady and hanging it on the clothesline outside your cabin. Did you care the high school boys could see your pink undies fluttering in the breeze? Not at all.

You instantly became friends with anyone who had a car

They were your key to Taco Bell and clean underwear. Sometimes you just needed that caramel macchiato or that chai latte you couldn’t get from the Brevard cafeteria. Maybe you just needed a package or two of Double Stuf Oreos or Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from Ingles. You weren’t going to walk all the way downtown because you have self respect. So instead, you sucked up to anyone with the ability to drive.

You figured out how to learn a ton of orchestra repertoire in literally no time at all

Learning and performing a major symphony, concerto and famous overture in only five days is now something you can add to your resume. Did you perfectly nail every single note in the performance? Not even close. But you were just proud of yourself for surviving the seven weeks. Plus, you knew the memories that mattered most were those nights spent up until 3am with your new lifelong friends in French Quarter, not those Mahler 5 excerpts you could never get up to tempo.