An Introduction

Enter Mrs. Shafron's fourth-grade classroom on October 31st, 2006. Take a look to your right and you probably would have seen witches, ghosts, and a bunch of Hannah Montana's. Take a look to your left and you might have seen a girl with pentagon-shaped glasses dressed up in some sort of a suit and a white wig. And if you had walked over to her to tell her you liked her George Washington costume, she would have taken a long sigh before explaining to you that she was not George Washington, but Johann Sebastian Bach.

Hi, my name is Celina Kobetitsch. My Slavic last name gets mispronounced 85% of the time and for fourth-grade Halloween, I dressed up as Bach. I think that event in my life pretty nicely sums up the rest of my personality.

But I guess I can tell you a little bit more about me:

1. I spend the majority of my day in the practice room (or at least, I try to). I started playing the piano when I was three, and throughout elementary school I got up at 7am to practice an hour before school (really wish I still had that in me). I went through this whole phase in middle school when I wanted to ditch classical piano and be Taylor Swift instead. I was tired of practicing but my parents still made me, so I would put Harry Potter on the piano and read while I played to make the time pass. Fortunately, I outgrew that, and now, I love the piano and would never be able to live without it.

For many years, I feel like I've struggled to find my place as a musician. When I was younger, it was always hard to explain to my friends that I couldn't go out because I had to practice. Throughout middle school especially, it always felt like I was just "that girl with the spider hands that move really really really fast when she plays the piano whoah" when all I wanted was to prove that classical music meant so much more than fast scales and virtuosic arpeggios.

I am so happy to be here at Oberlin where I can be surrounded by intelligent, talented musicians who understand the notion of having to shut oneself into a practice room and disconnect from society for a bit in order to be immersed into the music...and then have a social life afterwards. I love the piano. I love the different colors and characters it can create, the different composers' minds that I get to explore every day. Yay music.

2. I'm a bucket full of oxymorons, but then again, I think most of us are. I'm a loud introvert, a cluttered perfectionist, I'm scared of spiders but not at all scared of sitting at the edge of the Grand Canyon (oh gosh, the number of times my mom yelled at me for that).

3. I like nature and open space, which has caused me to love Oberlin. I love taking bike rides and strolls through Tappan or exploring other scenic places around here. Nature always makes me feel close to God (I'm Catholic) and close to the world and in tune with myself. I also like exploring and climbing things and seeing the world from new heights, and I love being outdoors so much that I've rolled my digital piano outside on multiple occasions at home.

4. I'm a bit of an environmentalist: I use clotheslines to dry all of my clothes — and my sheets!

I feel overwhelmingly guilty when I have to turn on the light in the practice room, and I'm a vegetarian.

5. I don't know how I would be a living, breathing human being without Spotify Premium.

6. I like to invent new things from old things. Just the other day I cut up my ripped leggings and accidentally turned them into a crop top that looks better than 73% of the clothes I own.

In sixth grade, I took old jeans and turned the pockets into little pencil pouches to stick on the inside of my locker. When I was seven, I added water to apple juice and I thought I was an absolute genius...

7. I love lists — of things I have to do, things I don't have to do, of places I need to go, etc. etc. etc. — or lists like this one!

8. I'm a nerd and sometimes I really like watching documentaries or having TED talk binges. I am also in love with this site called Brain Pickings, which is full of summaries and important snip-its from books and articles all about psychology and philosophy and life and cool stuff like that. I also watch Netflix occasionally, and I, like many others, accidentally end up watching 10 seasons of Friends in a couple of weeks — oops, what have I done?

9. I have a golden retriever at home, she is the love of my life, she used to sing while I played the piano, and now I FaceTime her at least once a week.

Here's a picture of Ginger bracing the Midwest winters.

Ginger keeping me on task and reminding me to do my homework.

Ginger not enjoying the birthday hat.

Ginger graduates high school!

Trying to pack Ginger for college.

Best friends for life.

EDIT: My sister was astounded that I said nothing about her so oops. Yes, I also have an awesome sister named Sam, two years younger than me, who is also my best friend.

So, there's a little bit about me! I'm so excited to be an Oberlin blogger! Say hi to me if you see me around — I love meeting new people!